Supreme King Jaden: Gentle Darkness vs Light of Destruction
by SuperNeos2
Summary: Jaden and the gang return to Duel Academy for their second year. With the arrival of new faces also comes Jaden's long awaited enemy; the Light of Destruction. But with the past haunting him in more ways than one, Jaden isn't sure he can win this fight. He must accept the past before he can secure a future. Season 2! JadenxAlexis!
1. Aster and Alex Phoenix!

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Only own any OCs**.**

**AN: I have taken people's votes into account and have decided to start this story alongside The Domino Eight so you guys don't have to wait months for Season 2. Be wary that massive spoilers for The Domino Eight will be mentioned here.**

**And as for the updating schedule. I'll do one chapter of this, one of The Domino Eight, one of this, one of The Domino Eight, etc. That way I can balance them out.**

**I also hope that you guys still check that story out. It's quite important to see just what happened instead of just hearing about it from the characters. It'll also make more sense why Jaden and Jason are the way they are now if you read that story too.**

**Okay, this version of Season 2 will be a little bit darker than the canon one since a lot of heavy shit has happened at this point in the timeline. If anything seems confusing here, it'll be explained in 'The Domino Eight'.**

**I hope you guys like it.**

**Enjoy**

Chapter 1-

Summer vacation had ended two days ago and now the students of Duel Academy were arriving back for the next year of their education at the duel school.

But there was also some tension and anxiety for the upcoming year. The main reason for this being that two of the students from the school had gotten a very 'interesting' reputation over the summer. A reputation that had enlisted fear into the hearts of the student body.

On the boat bringing the new students for the year, there was a man aboard. He sat alone in his room, a newspaper held tightly in his hand. The headline was one that everyone in Japan knew now.

'Manhunt for The Domino Eight'.

Eight squares were presented on the front. The first two squares were the ones he now focused on the most. They were twins, though one had a very bad right side of the face. One glared up in his picture while the damaged twin was neutral. The square next to them was a dark blued hair man, looking angry. The one next to that was a bald plain looking Hispanic man. Next to him, a kid not much older than the twins with dark brown hair. Then it was a brown haired crazy looking guy; a bald dark skinned man with a beard; and a disturbed looking man with blonde hair.

Names scribbled under each and every one of them.

Jaden Yuki was the first twin. Jason Yuki was the damaged twin. Walter Anderson was the dark blue haired man. Shane Nelson was the other kid. Carlos Rodriguez was the Hispanic man. Brian Phillips was the crazy looking guy. Andrew Jackson was the dark skinned man. Eren Franklin was the last blonde hair man.

Otherwise known as 'The Domino Eight'. A group of convicts who escaped from prison.

The man holding this paper glanced over each picture slowly, feeling depression sink its way into his system the longer he looked. All eight guys looked dangerous in their mugshots, which would make any average civilian recoil upon seeing them in real life. They were mean looking in the pictures, but the man holding the paper knew better that almost all of these guys were good people.

And he really meant 'were'.

Five of them were dead... and four of them didn't deserve to die.

He clutched tightly as the paper wrinkled, clearing his throat uncomfortably as he tossed the paper to the floor; scatters of paper flying everywhere.

The reason he cared was because he was about to spend a whole year with Jaden and Jason Yuki, and the latter wouldn't be happy about seeing him.

Hell, Jason might try to kill him.

Knowing that the boat wouldn't dock until later that evening, he glanced at the other newspaper that he had to his right on the mattress.

This headline was 'Red Road Three escaped prison'.

Jason Yuki and Carlos Rodriguez were two of the three pictures on this one while the man holding the paper was the last. His dark blonde hair and dark brown eyes looked very cold in the picture. Either that or he was just imagining shit. It wouldn't be the first time he hallucinated this past week.

He slid that paper to the floor as well as he laid spread eagle on the mattress, thinking about the upcoming headaches and problems that would surely bring about trouble.

And it wouldn't be pretty for anyone.

...

At the same time, two people were waiting on the docks. One was Dr. Vellian Crowler, head of the Obelisk Blue Boys Dorm. And another was a short, fat, bald person wearing a greenish blazer and had short brown hair in the back of his head. Having a thin, curled mustache, it matched his eyebrows. His name was Jean Louie Bonaparte.

"Hurry up you Swedish meatball! We've wasted enough time already!" Crowler exclaimed.

"Pardoné moi 'Chancellor'! It's not my fault I got petite legs!" Bonaparte replied. "What are we running for anyway?" He asked.

"The new students are arriving soon and we need to be there to greet them." Crowler replied.

"So what? Just because you've been promoted to Chancellor, all of a sudden you care?" Bonaparte mocked. They ran for a little bit longer before stopping.

"We can't miss this!" Crowler beamed as he held a magazine.

The Vice Chancellor looked confused. "Did I miss the joke?"

"Are you calling Aster Phoenix a joke?" Crowler opened up the magazine and showed a picture of a young man in a white tuxedo. He had gray hair and blue eyes. He appeared to be a good looking boy.

Bonaparte gasped.

"He enrolled in this year's freshmen class!" Crowler explained, still looking excited.

"I don't understand. A world ranked professional duelist going back to school? Why?" Bonaparte asked.

"Who knows, but if he comes here, he'll make our school world-famous!" The new Chancellor squealed. "After all everyone knows Aster Phoenix!"

...

A small group of three people were by a cliff. They were near the Slifer Red Dorm.

"I don't know who you are, freshman, but if you wanna duel, then let's..." A brunette boy in a Slifer Red Jacket, known as Jaden Yuki said to the person across from him, who he did not know was the pro duelist Aster Phoenix.

Jaden looked a lot different from he did at the end of the last year. While he still had the red jacket, black undershirt, and the same hairstyle, his attitude and spunk was noticeably different along with a scar on his right cheek that ran from the bottom of his eye up to his forehead. He no longer looked that excited like he was most of last year and didn't have that big a smile on his face. It was more of a small smirk. He was more calm and the brightness in his eyes was gone.

On top of the cliff was one Slifer boy. A blue haired boy named Syrus Truesdale was watching the duel about to commence. Syrus was also looking worriedly at his best friend, more noticeably the scar running down his cheek, being one of the only people who knew everything that happened to Jaden during the summer.

"So, what's your name freshman?" Jaden asked his opponent.

"You can call me AP." He greeted.

"Well then, AP, let's duel." Jaden said.

Both players activated their duel disks and got their opening hands.

Aster: 8000

Jaden: 8000

As Aster drew his first card, two more people approached the spectators. One was the black coat wearing, black haired kid named Chazz Princeton. The other was a blonde Obelisk girl named Alexis Rhodes. While Chazz looked the same, Alexis had her hair pulled up into a ponytail, leaving two bangs on either side of her face, adding a cuteness to her beautiful posture that wasn't there before.

"Wow, Jaden doesn't waste anytime..." Alexis stated.

"Why is he going after the freshman?" Chazz asked.

"Actually, that guy challenged him," Syrus pointed to Jaden's opponent. "He just showed up at our doorstep wanting to 'battle the best duelist on the island. And that's you Jaden Yuki.' And that's what brings us here." He explained.

Chazz looked around, noticing a particularly obvious absence. "Where's Jason?"

Alexis looked and indeed saw that Jaden's twin brother was missing from the duel. "Yeah, you would think he would be here watching his brother duel."

"He's trying to catch up on the sleep he lost during his time in Red Road," Syrus explained. Chazz and Alexis both grew a little tense at the mention of one of the two places that they all rather forget.

Syrus also noticed an absence. "Where's Asami?" He asked, seeing that the pink haired girlfriend of Jason was missing.

"She got a call on her phone about two minutes ago," Alexis explained. "She's taking it right now and by the look on her face, it was gonna be awhile before she finished up."

Chazz looked on. "Do you think his time as a member of 'The Domino Eight' affected his dueling skills?" He asked the two present, both softening at the reminder of Jaden's, which was also Jason's, occupation during the summer before they shook their heads.

"Jaden? Nope, not no bit." Alexis confidently said about her boyfriend.

"Yeah," he agreed. "But do any of you know about Jaden's opponent?" Chazz asked.

"Okay, he's starting to look familiar to me..." Syrus pondered. "Still can't put a name on him, though..."

"Yeah, he does look familiar!" Alexis agreed.

"Maybe he's like what Chazz used to be, a stuck-up rich kid!" Syrus grinned.

"Zip it Syrus!" Chazz yelled. "He's nothing like me!"

"I play Ojama Yellow in defense mode!"

Chazz did a face-fault as Aster summoned one of Chazz's known monsters. It was a yellow creature with eyestalks wearing red bikini briefs appeared, crossing his arms. (ATK: 0/DEF: 1000)

"Ojama Yellow?" Jaden wondered. "Why'd you start with that? That's my bro Chazz's thing."

"I would never start with him." Chazz said.

Suddenly, a spirit version of Ojama Yellow popped up near the Slifer's shoulder.

"That's right, boss!" He said. "You save the best cards for last!"

"You guys are my finishing moves. I save you guys for the big guns." Chazz nodded. Summer had opened Chazz's eyes on a bunch of stuff, one of them being how duel spirits get lost and saddened upon being separated from their owners. Seeing that happen to Jaden's and Jason's spirits Yubel and Sly, Chazz allowed for his bond to the Ojamas to grow to the point where he rarely talked smack to them.

"Oh, I knew you meant it!" Yellow exclaimed before disappearing.

Alexis smiled. "You guys are really close..." on her birthday halfway through the summer, Jaden had given both her and Asami the ability to see duel spirits. He did this so they can know where he and Jason was while on the run. She appreciated it. She liked it.

"I suppose..." Chazz said to the one of the girls that had become like his sisters. Summer did a lot to them all in terms of relationships, both familial and romantic as well as friendships.

Whether they were for the good like Chazz's with Alexis and Asami.

Or the bad like Jason and a friend he made over the two months.

She smiled before turning back to the duel. "But I wonder what else this guy has..."

"Not much of anything, really..."

The spectators saw Ms. Dorothy, the owner of the card shack in the island holding a fat brown cat named Pharaoh. Along with her, an Obelisk Blue girl with waist length pink hair and emerald eyes appeared. She is the warrior duelist, Asami Elric; girlfriend to Jason Yuki.

Like Alexis, she changed her hairstyle from last year. Instead of just having it let down like before, she had her long waist length pink hair pulled into a side bang on the left; her right side let down, making her appear more beautiful than usual.

"Hey Asami," Alexis greeted. "Who called?"

The pink haired girl sighed. "My father," Chazz, Syrus, and Alexis all saw the confliction in her eyes when she said that. She and her father were going through a rough patch right now due to some summer events. "Wanted to check up on me and see if I was okay. I think that's what he said," she shrugged. "I tuned him out."

"He said he was sorry for what he tried to do to Jaden and Jason..." Chazz reminded, knowing what was making her upset. Asami's father was one of four people over summer that made it unenjoyable for either one of them. Syrus, Chazz, and Alexis saw his reasoning and even Jaden forgave him. The only ones that had a vendetta against him were Jason and to an extent his own daughter Asami.

And in Jason's case, he wanted him dead.

She shrugged at him. "I know and I understand why he did what he did, but he still did horrible things to their friends. Really bad things... and they affected Jason in a terrible way." she reminded him, causing the boy who had become like a brother to her over the summer to close his mouth and nod.

She shrugged again as she looked over the ledge to see what the commotion was. "So Jaden's dueling already? Boy doesn't waste time."

"Now that I think about it, he did mention how he was dueling the first person he saw when we got back here," Alexis remembered. "Said something about how all that time without dueling in East Domino drove him mad."

East Domino.

The name of the second place that they rather forget.

"Anyway," Chazz said changing subjects. "What do you mean by not much of anything?" He asked.

"He came by the card shack this morning..." Dorothy replied. "I didn't even stack the shelves with new cards, but he asked for any leftovers and bought eight packs worth of cards and created a 40-card deck with them."

"You mean Jaden's dueling a guy with mix-matched cards!" Syrus whined.

"That's weak..." Chazz muttered.

"Unless it's all from the same pack." Asami added. "They always have compatible cards." She looked and finally realized that her boyfriend wasn't present. "Where's Jason?"

"Catching some Z's." Syrus said. "Red Road kept him awake a lot, so he's catching up on some."

"Well I'm gonna go check on him anyway," Asami said. "Make sure he's okay and all." If there was one thing her boyfriend wasn't right now, it was okay. She bid them farewell before she headed up to the Slifer Dorm.

"Okay, my move!" Jaden drew his sixth card. "I'll summon out my Elemental Hero Sparkman in attack mode!"

The electric wielding hero appeared on Jaden's field with a pose. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1400)

"And with H Heated Heart, my friend here gains 500 attack points plus the ability to inflict piercing damage."

A blue H fused into the hero, giving him power. (ATK: 1600-2100)

"Now attack with Static Shockwave!"

Sparkman created a bolt of lightning that pierced through and destroyed the yellow Ojama.

Aster: 6900

Jaden: 8000

Aster pretended to look impressed. "Wow! I guess you are as good as everyone says!"

"Thanks," Jaden smiled slightly. "I haven't played in two months so I was a little worried." He confessed as Sparkman's power decreased back to normal. (ATK: 2100-1600)

Aster drew and looked over his hand. 'Soon I'll learn all of Jaden's strategies! All I have to do is play another round of weak cards...' He then turned his attention back to the duel, "What about this?" He said as the next card he played was a gold-skinned angel with two golden wings. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 0)

"This is the Agent of Creation – Venus! And I'll bring out more of her friends, by paying 500 life points, I can summon a Mystical Shine Ball to join her, and I'll bring out two!"

Aster: 5900

Jaden: 8000

Like coming out of the air, two clear orbs of light appeared. (ATK: 500/DEF: 500) x2

"Then I'll play Monster Gate to sacrifice one of my Shine Ball's to keep drawing until I get a monster." One Shine Ball disappeared as he picked up twice before his third card was a monster.

"And lookie here, its my Needle Burrower!" He said as a red metallic scorpion appeared on his field. (ATK: 1700/DEF: 1700)

"Now let's attack, destroy Sparkman with Burrowing Needle!"

Burrower ran forward and stabbed the E-Hero, sending him off the field.

Aster: 5900

Jaden: 7900

Jaden was rattled with some flashbacks that he quickly shook away with a firm move of the head.

"And my monster's ability deals 500 points of damage for every level of the monster destroyed."

Jaden felt the tail of the monster stab into him.

Aster: 5900

Jaden: 5900

"Now, I attack directly with both Venus and Mystical Shine Ball!"

Jaden braced for impact as the clear orb and angel tackled him into the ground.

Aster: 5900

Jaden: 3800

"I'll toss this card facedown and end my turn!" Aster set a reversed card. "So how's that?"

Jaden winced. "I guess I am out of practice a little bit."

"In one turn he took Jaden's lead!" Syrus gasped.

"That slacker's letting someone with a mishmash deck get the best of him..." Chazz stated. "How is the Supreme King letting this happen to him?"

"My move!" Jaden drew.

"And I'll activate this, my Solar Ray trap card!" Aster activated his trap card. "Now I can deal 600 points of damage for every LIGHT monster on the field, and with two that's 1200!"

A ray of light shot out from the card, making Jaden shield himself again.

Aster: 5900

Jaden: 2600

"Wow," Alexis gasped. "He's almost down!"

"First I'll play my Dark Fusion to fuse my Avian and Burstinatrix to make the Evil Hero Inferno Wing!"

The wind and fire themed heroes swirled together in a stream of darkness before the fiend and dark clawed winged hero appeared on the field. (ATK: 2100/DEF: 1200)

"And then I'll summon Evil Hero Infernal Gainer!" Appearing next to Inferno Wing was a dark armored fiend with a dark mask covering his eyes. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 0)

"And his ability sends him two turns into the future to allow my Inferno Wing to attack twice for those two turns!" He explained as Gainer vanished in a dark portal, the excess energy pouring into Inferno Wing.

"Now I'll attack Needle Burrower and Mystical Shine Ball!" Jaden said, Inferno Wing prepping two shots of fire that incinerated both monsters.

Aster: 3900

Jaden: 2600

"And my monster's ability does damage to you equal to the monster's ATK or DEF points, whichever were higher. So you got 2200 more points coming your way." Jaden noted.

Inferno Wing stopped in front of Aster and let lose a blast of flames.

Aster: 1700

Jaden: 2600

"Awesome! Jaden took the lead!" Syrus cheered.

"So what?" Chazz said. "That new kid's deck is nothing special! This should be easy for him!"

"Come on..." Syrus interjected. "Don't count Jaden out yet. Besides, anyone can win with anything and anyone can lose to anyone."

"You may be right..." Alexis added. "But Jaden won't lose to this guy."

"Alright kid, it's your move!" Jaden said after putting a facedown.

"Okay!" Aster drew and looked over his hand. 'Good!' He took the card he just drew. "I play the..."

Suddenly, a ring tone started playing...

"What's that sound?" Jaden asked.

"Just a sec!" He says, pulling out a cell phone. "I gotta take this!" He placed the phone to his ear. "Hello? Oh no, I'm free to talk now, I'm not busy..."

Jaden was about to freak out, but calmed himself down. "Forget it Jaden, its nothing worth getting upset over..." he showed some of his newfound maturity. "Let the guy take the call."

"Who whips out a cell phone in the middle of a duel?" Chazz asked angrily. "That's obnoxious!"

"No joke!" Syrus added. "He really is like how you used to be Chazz!"

"Syrus I am five seconds from kicking you down onto the dueling field!" Chazz warned. Syrus nodded quickly and stayed quiet.

"I wonder what that's about..." Alexis wondered.

"That's right, I'm dueling him as we speak..." Aster talked to the person on the phone.

...

And the person on the phone, was inside a white room in an unknown place. He wore a white cloak and had some tarot cards on a table in front of him.

"Excellent!" He replied.

"So any last minute advice?" Aster asked.

The cloaked man turned over a card. It was a picture of a grim reaper with a long scythe. But the card was upside down.

"The Reaper of Souls is upright." He said. "You know what must be done!"

...

"Cool, thanks for the call!" Aster replied as he shut off his phone and turned his attention to Jaden.

"Hope that call went well," Jaden said. "So what card you're gonna play now?"

"Now I activate Reload! By playing this card, I can reshuffle my hand and draw a new one!"

Aster shuffled his three card hand into his deck and drew another three cards.

"What was that about?" Jaden asked.

"I needed a better card," he said. "I play the Sanctuary in the Sky!"

The beach scenery was replaced by a floor of clouds, and right behind Aster appeared a white temple.

"A big building on some clouds, huh?" Jaden wondered.

"I summon Warrior of Zera in attack mode!"

A warrior with a green armored chest plate, helmet and arm guards and blue pants appeared. He held a blue sword. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1600)

"Jaden's in trouble..." Chazz stated.

"And now since Warrior of Zera is on the field with Sanctuary in the Sky, I can sacrifice him to summon his ascended form, Archlord Zerato!"

Zera was taken in by a light pillar and then came out from the sky wearing a red scarf with large white wings and a mask over his face. He now carried a cutlass sword with him. (ATK: 2800/DEF: 2300)

"And here's something else you might not have expected; I send another LIGHT monster, like my final Mystical Shine Ball to the grave to activate Zerato's effect!" Aster explained. "And it destroys all of your monsters!"

"Actually I reveal my Vicious Cycle trap card!" Jaden said as a trap depicting Malicious Fiend covered in a dark aura appeared on his field. "Now when an Evil Hero is about to be destroyed by a card effect, I can remove from play Dark Fusion to save it from being destroyed." He explained as he pocketed the card.

The light died down.

"I can still attack," Aster said as Zerato charged in towards Inferno Wing and destroyed her.

Aster: 1700

Jaden: 1900

"And don't think I forgot about Venus! Attack directly!"

Venus charged up a ball of light that hit Jaden in the chest.

Aster: 1700

Jaden: 300

"That's gonna leave a mark," Alexis winced for her boyfriend.

"Yeah, it was like this one time at duel camp, the same thing happened to me..."

"Just zip it..." Chazz interrupted Syrus, not wanting to hear this story again.

Jaden stood back up. "Gotta say, I just realized how much I missed dueling." He said. These last two months were so busy and fear inducing that he couldn't even hold a card over the vacation. He was glad to be back and cleared of everything.

'I know all about your little adventures as a member of The Domino Eight.' Aster thought after hearing Jaden say that. He shrugged. 'Gotta say, he looks nothing like that mugshot. Must be that scar.' He deduced.

"First, I'll play Legacy of the Hero! Since I have at least 2 level 4 or higher Elemental Heroes in my grave, I can draw three cards!" He drew three times. "Now I summon Elemental Hero Clayman!"

A round man of clay and mud appeared on the field, arms crossed, the red dome of a head shining in the light of the arena. (ATK: 800/DEF: 2000)

"Next, I discard Metamorphosis along with Clayman to special summon the Elemental Hero Clay Guardian!"

Clayman's form changed into a something nearly resembling a football player as per the helmet on his head. He now had additional armor like shoulder guards plus a red shield to block with. (ATK: 0/DEF: 2800)

"Now activate your special ability: Patrol Penalty!"

Clay Guardian slid over to Aster's side and rammed him with the shield.

"What gives!" He asked when he got back to his feet.

"When Clay Guardian's special summoned, you lose 200 points for every card on your field! So say goodbye to 600 of them!"

Aster: 1100

Jaden: 300

"And with Card of Sanctity, I can get a whole new hand." He and Aster drew until they had six. "Now I throwdown three facedowns and end my turn."

"That new guy's in trouble." Dorothy noticed.

"Yeah, Jaden's backed him up into a corner." Alexis added.

"Plus, Clay Guardian can defend Jaden against Zerato since they have equal power." Chazz stated.

"My draw!" Aster drew. "I summon a little guy called Rocket Jumper!"

A floating rock monster appeared with a giant red rocket on its back. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 800)

"Since all of your monsters are in defense mode, my new monster can attack directly! Incoming!"

Rocket Jumper launched itself over Clay Guardian and aimed for Jaden.

"I reveal my Emergency Provisions to send one of my facedowns to the grave to give myself 1000 life points!"

He cancelled out the damage as Rocket Jumper hit him.

"That's it for now!"

"And its my go, which means Gainer comes back..." the fiend reappeared on the field. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 0) "Destroy his Rocket Jumper!"

Gainer sickened on the rocket boy and sliced across on his back.

Aster: 500

Jaden: 300

"That's all for me!"

"Then let's see what fate has in store for me." 'AP' stated. "I need a LIGHT monster to win against you, and fate's got my back!"

"It's not about fate, bro..." Jaden said. "It's about listening to your cards. And it's done good for me!"

"Now you're crazy!" 'AP' retorted. "You expect me to have a conversation with my cards!"

"Sure, why not?"

Appearing next to Jaden was a female black winged fiend with two different colored eyes and another on her forehead. This was his spirit partner, Yubel.

'Glad to see you haven't lost your sense of humor.' She stated, almost gratefully.

'I'm a little more serious, but we don't need too much negatively. We got Haou for that.'

The two shared a smile.

Aster stared at Jaden. 'Gives bad advice, doesn't show too much emotion, leader of one of the most dangerous groups of people in recent history, and to top it off, hears voices in his head.' He thought. 'Jaden's not what I expected in being the best of this Academy... Time to end this duel and move on with my life...'

...

Back in the white room, the cloaked man flipped over another tarot card. It was a knight riding a white two headed snake horse hybrid.

"Ah, the inverted chariot!" He said. "The end is near..."

...

"Remember, listen to your deck!" Jaden called out to his opponent.

"Whatever..." Aster drew. He looked at the card with disdain.

"Bad card, huh?" Jaden asked. "You might want to work on that poker face a bit..."

"Maybe I want you to think that..." He shrugged. "Or maybe I don't want to win..."

"Huh?" Jaden raised an eyebrow.

"Think about it, when you accepted my challenge have you ever thought about my wants, the reason to come to the Academy, or why out of everyone that's here now, I challenged you? The leader of The Domino Eight? Because despite what you did over the summer, I heard you were the best, so I came to test you!"

"You can't be serious..." Jaden groaned. "I used to think about fate pointing me to do something, but I realized that wasn't the case." He referenced his stupid goal to get the Sacred Beasts last year that didn't go anywhere and he was glad for that.

"Of course, it isn't about what you think is fate, because it's about real destiny. Aster said, confusing Jaden still. "Maybe this will show you, I actually drew a LIGHT monster! My Agent of Wisdom- Mercury! And by discarding it you're wide open!"

The Sanctuary opened up and shot its light against Jaden's heroes.

"Wow, not bad!" Jaden praised.

"Then let's see how you like it when Zerato finishes you off!"

The winged Archlord flew in the sky ready to strike...

"I play my Depth Amulet! Now I can discard a card to negate your attack!" Zerato's attack died down on the spot.

Jaden smirked. "Now what were saying about destiny?"

"It's simple, everything that happens in our lives is predetermined," Aster explained. "Losers born to be losers and legends are born to legends!"

Jaden blinked. "Ummm, that's taking things a little too much." He said, although he did know that he was destined to face off against some big evil soon, but he didn't really count that. He was a special case. People can become anything they wanna be regardless of who they are or where they came from.

Aster was thinking back to his conversation to the white cloaked man he was talking to on the phone earlier...

...

Aster was sitting in front of the table with the Chariot card upside down.

"When you find this Jaden, he's to defeat you in a duel, understood?" He asked. "It's the only way to see if he's one of the two we've been looking for! Trust me it's for the best..."

"But there's gotta be another way," Aster exclaimed. "I've never thrown a duel!"

"Aster, have I ever steered you wrong?" The cloaked man asked. "Or any of my protégés for that matter? Trust me, it's for the best..."

...

'How can a manager tell his star player to lose?' Aster thought.

"Now the end begins," Jaden drew. "I'll play Monster Reborn to special summon back the card I discarded to stop your attack: Yubel!" Jaden's favorite monster appeared on his side of the field. (ATK: 0/DEF: 0)

"Now I'll set this card and play my Akashic Record!" He drew twice, getting Wildheart and R-Righteous Justice. "Now I'll summon Elemental Hero Wildheart in attack mode!"

The dark skinned hero appeared by Yubel's side. (ATK: 1500/DEF: 1600)

"Then with my R-Righteous Justice, I can send your field spell to the graveyard."

Aster only watched as they returned to the rocky waves.

"And now I sacrifice him to keep Yubel in play!" Wildheart vanished into tiny particles.

"Kinda a waste," Aster said as he drew.

"Now I reveal my trap, which is my Battle Mania, forcing all your monsters to attack me this turn."

"Why?"

"Because all damage done to me involving Yubel gets redirected to you," Jaden smirked at Aster's shocked gaze.

Yubel looked as Zerato prepped a ball of light and fired towards her. Yubel bounced it back with her wing over to Aster an explosion shaking the field.

Aster: 0

Jaden: 300 (Winner)

"That's that!" Jaden smiled slightly again. "I hope my double threat didn't hurt you too bad!"

"Nah, I'm fine!" Aster said. "Nice game!"

"Yeah, you had some sweet moves!" Jaden praised. "Not bad for a freshman! Just keep on practicing and maybe you'll become one of those legends you talked about!" He encouraged.

Back on the balcony, they watched as Jaden was still going on with advice...

"What a duel, don't you think guys?" Dorothy asked. "And that new student is quite the looker... Did anyone catch his name?"

"I think he said it was AP." Syrus said.

"AP?" Chazz pondered. "Sounds familiar..."

Then they noticed the two duelists coming up the hill, still talking. "Guess I'll see you around, AP!"

As Aster walked away, he contemplated on Jaden's actions.

'I don't get it...' He thought. 'Sure Jaden's a nice guy and a decent duelist, but I don't see why my manager is so obsessed with this one. The only worthwhile thing about him is that he's a member of The Domino Eight and I doubt that's why he's obsessed with him. I still don't understand how joining this school is going to help my career. But I guess Sartorius knows best. As for the other duelist he wants to know about, I'll let Alex take care of him. I'll let him get some exercise.'

He took a glance at the spectators, Dorothy was the one that waved back, which he smiled and nodded.

"Don't be a stranger, stranger!" She waved back as Aster left.

"So guys... what do you think about my first duel of the second year?" Jaden asked. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"You rocked, Jay!" Syrus praised.

"Yeah," Alexis nodded, leaning against him and kissing his cheek. "Even through everything you never lost your touch over the summer!" She said.

"Glad to see you're still a good duelist." Chazz added. "Would hate it if my main rival lost his skill."

"Well, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of AP." Jaden wondered.

"Wait a sec... AP..." Syrus pulled out a magazine with Aster's picture on it. "I knew it, that was Aster Phoenix!"

"So, he's got a weird name, big deal..." Jaden shrugged.

"He's not gonna know," Chazz said. "Aster Phoenix started becoming really big while he was in the can."

"Think Jaden, Aster Phoenix is the number 1 duelist in the World League!" Alexis stated. "A pro!"

"You know that means, Jaden," Syrus stated. "You beat a pro!"

"Whoa!" Jaden gasped. "A student beating a pro!"

"Uh, Jaden," Dorothy interrupted. "That wasn't Aster's real deck, it was just a mishmash deck."

"You mean I dueled a guy using leftover cards?" He didn't look upset, just a little surprised. "And almost lost?" He sighed. "Now I know I gotta regain all my skills I apparently lost while locked up."

"At least you won..." Syrus said.

"Sure," Jaden said. "But when we duel again, I'll do even better!" He declared. "I just needed the practice back. Running for my life kinda stopped me from doing any dueling."

Alexis smiled a little bit sadly. "Let's go check on Jason and Asami."

"Otherwise known as Sappy Couple," Chazz said.

"So what's me and Jaden?" She asked curiously.

"Tamed Couple."

The group shared a laugh. The first in two months since everything went down.

...

At the time Jaden started his duel with Aster, Jason Yuki was lying on the bottom bunk of the room that he shared with his brother Jaden and Syrus. His Slifer uniform was on, but the sleeves from the elbow down were pulled off on both sides, revealing a bunch of cuts and newly acquired muscles and bruises. He decided that a new year needed a new look, despite all the visible marks that occupied his skin. He still had a black T-shirt on under his open blazer that matched his brother's.

His one eye that he had was forced shut as he started to twist around on the bunk, breathing heavily as his mind played through a bunch of past memories over the past two months.

'We're breaking out...' Jaden's voice sounded like an echo within his mind.

Next, he saw him and a slightly older kid shove a man down a flight of stairs. He felt his stomach twist.

After that, he saw a dark blue haired man chop the hand off of a slightly psycho looking man that was handcuffed to Jaden with an axe.

He leaned on his side and held his stomach tight when he replayed words that haunted him everyday ever since he heard them on the news a few weeks back.

'What're you thoughts on the death of Shane Nelson?'

He almost threw up when he saw him stab the same psycho looking man from before and him pound another man's face in while standing in a dirt covered courtyard.

He moaned when he witnessed a tunnel of dirt fall on top of a man and his lips upturning into a smile when it all came down.

He fell off the bunk and ran over to the small garbage bin when he finally saw himself bite down on a man's neck and rip a large chunk of it off.

He hurled right afterwards when he heard the door knock and then open. He heard a collective gasp and the sound of feet moving across the rug, stopping right behind him. A familiar touch caressed his back while he gagged trying to stop throwing up.

After a few deep breaths, he was okay. He looked behind him and saw his girlfriend Asami smiling at him.

"Hey," she greeted, helping him to stand up from his spot on the floor.

"Hey yourself," he smiled back, not attempting to kiss her after what he just did. Affectionately, she gave him a peck on his cheek and pulled out a stick of gum. He took it in gratitude. "Thanks."

She smiled in response before it quickly fell from her face. "Thinking about everything?" She asked as he started chewing on the bubblegum flavored chewing gum.

"All the time since I broke out of East Domino," he said. He took out the plastic bag from the garbage and tied it shut. "I'm never gonna forget the shit me and Jaden went through this summer." He said as he disappeared out of the room for a few seconds to dump his hurl filled bag out of the room.

Asami stared sadly at her boyfriend as he reentered the room. "I don't expect you to," she said. "You guys went through and did a lot of stuff that's traumatizing because you were framed for some stupid crime thanks to Slade and Jagger."

Jason darkened upon hearing the names of two of the people who had ruined his summer and to an extent his life. He rested easy though due to them now being in jail. Ironically and poetically, they were in the same prison they got him and Jaden sent to: East Domino State Penitentiary.

"I lost a really close friend and failed to save another one and watched as he died." He held his head in his hands. "I just wish it never happened..."

"I know, baby," she hugged him, to which he embraced back. She looked at her boyfriend in the eye. "Syrus said you were trying to sleep."

He sighed. "Yeah... trying is the keyword there. Every time I close my eyes, I see nothing but ghosts."

"You slept fine last night," she brought up.

"But you slept in the bed with me..."

She blushed upon being reminded of that. Jason spent the few days he had of vacation time with her at her house and they slept in the bed together when he refused to leave. She didn't recall Jason so much as wincing in his sleep. She was the only thing that can make him kinda smile now, feeling somewhat safe around her emotionally after all that's happened and after they had 'intimacy'. But still, he even got angry and depressed when she was with him when his dead friends were brought up or if her father came up, not bothering to hide his hatred for him even around Asami. Since he wasn't ranting or punching the wall, she assumed he must've been in a better mood today since they were finally back at Duel Academy.

"You want me to sleep in the bed with you again?"

"I would very much appreciate that." He said in thanks.

She smiled, "Okay... but I need something from you..."

He blinked, "And what's that?"

She grinned. "A kiss..."

"I can do that," he smiled as he quickly pecked his girlfriend on the lips. Before he pulled back, she grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him back in for a deeper kiss. This went on for a few seconds before they pulled back. He smiled. "I missed you while I was in jail..."

She smiled sadly, "I missed you more..."

He shook his head. "Impossible..." she smiled a little more after hearing that.

"I love you so much..." she said happily. She thought she lost Jason forever when he and Jaden were first arrested. She was thrilled and no words can describe how she felt right now knowing that she and Jason were still together. If not for Chazz, she would've given up on all hope that she and Jason could live on. She owed the Ojama duelist so much.

She put her finger in her mouth as she pulled out a familiar piece of gum. "Here's your gum back." She handed it to him.

"Thanks," he nodded as he put the sticky substance back into his mouth.

A knock interrupted their conversation. Standing in the doorway was a grey haired teen whose hair went down to the base of his neck. He was wearing a dark grey shirt and blue jeans. He also had blue eyes.

"Pardon my interruption," he said. He looked to Jason. "But I'm here to challenge Jason Yuki to a duel."

They both blinked in confusion. "Why me?" He pointed to himself.

"Because I heard you were the second best duelist on this island, only behind your brother Jaden." He explained. "And pardon what I'm about to say, but I'm also curious as to how a Domino Eight and Red Road Three member duels."

Jason almost punched the guy in the mouth for addressing him by titles that he never wanted to hear again. The only reason he didn't was because Asami was in the room. He didn't want to hurt anyone in front of her again. Not after last time.

When he bit out a man's neck with his bare teeth and snapped another's with door lock chains in front of her and everyone else. He almost shuddered when he thought about it.

Plus, he didn't even know what skills he even had left after not playing for months. He figured he could use the practice. So, he shrugged as he grabbed his deck box from the desk and his duel disk from his backpack.

"Whatever, I'll duel." Jason said, strapping his deck box on his hip and his duel disk on his arm. He was ready to see if he was still as good as he was at the end of their first year. He wanted to use his dead friend's cards, but he didn't have the necessary support for them at the moment. He guessed he would have to wait until he got them from Jaden before he could use them.

Unless... he smirked. He had an idea.

"Who are you?" Asami asked the boy that was patiently waiting for Jason to get his things. She didn't like the way he looked, suddenly showing up and challenging Jason to a duel out of the blue. Her protective instincts for her boyfriend were shooting up as she looked at this new guy. She didn't trust anyone near Jason after learning what her own father had tried to do to him and what he had done to his friends.

The new guy turned his attention to her, smiling just slightly. "Alex..."

...

Five minutes later, the group of three was standing by the dirt path leading to the Slifer Dorm with Jason and Alex standing opposite of each other.

"Hope you're ready," Alex said as he turned on his disk.

Jason smirked. "I was gonna say the same thing." He said as he turned on his own disk. They both drew their opening hands.

"Duel!"

Alex: 8000

Jason: 8000

"What's up guys?"

Asami turned her head to see two people coming their way. One was a black haired Ra Yellow student and the other a brown haired Obelisk. They were Bastion Misawa and Atticus Rhodes respectively.

The pinkette nodded towards them. "Hey," she greeted back as they arrived. "What brings you guys over here?"

Bastion looked to Jason. "Him. Here to check up on the lad, see how he's doing."

Atticus nodded. "Yeah. The shit he and Jaden did... that was really messed up."

Asami knew what they were talking about. They were talking about what Jaden and Jason did right after the latter escaped from the second prison he was sent to. They, along with her dad, had killed a group of six men that Slade and Jagger sent to hold Alexis, her, and her family hostage so her dad would kill Jaden, Jason, and their friend Carlos. Jason and them struck first.

She looked to her boyfriend as he drew his five card opening hand. "He's okay..." she said it clearly, but the truth in those words was questionable. Like she thought before, Jason wasn't anywhere near okay.

Not after losing so many friends.

Back to the duel, Alex decided to take the first move. "Allow me to begin things by placing a monster facedown in defense mode!" A reversed monster card appeared on the field.

Jason raised an eyebrow. "Really? That's it?"

Alex shrugged. "You worry about your strategy and I'll worry about mine."

Jason accepted that and drew his sixth card. As he did, Jaden and the others decided to march on up to their duel from the cliffs. That had to mean Jaden's duel with that guy was done.

Jaden looked over the field curiously. "Looks like Jason's also been challenged." He said as he and Alexis took a spot right next to Asami.

The pinkette nodded. "Yep. Guy's name is Alex. They're just starting."

Atticus looked at Jaden. "How you doing, bro?" The summer had thrown them all closer together as a unit, strengthening bonds with just about everyone. Atticus had also taken a part in the action shortly after Jason's second arrest, earning gratitude from both Yukis as he played a vital role in allowing that second escape to happen.

Jaden shrugged. "I've been worse." He admitted honestly. Atticus didn't seem to believe him, but nodded anyway. Jaden appreciated the concern, but he didn't want to be babied. He was a big boy and could handle his own stress and pain by himself.

He refused to get others involved in his issues. Last time he did, it cost innocent people their lives... his friends' lives.

Jason spared a glance to his brother. "You win?"

Jaden nodded. "Yep... although I don't feel all that good about it since the guy wasn't even using his real deck."

Alexis turned to look at Jaden worriedly. He would've been ecstatic about dueling a pro before the end of last year. Now? He just shrugs it off and nods. It worried her. It showed how Jaden was different from who he was before.

"He dueled Aster Phoenix!" Syrus explained. "The number one duelist in the Pro League!"

Alex smirked on the inside. 'You wouldn't win if he was trying.'

Jason blinked. "Wow... that would be better if he had his real deck." He then shrugged. "It's still cool that you faced a pro."

"I guess..." Jaden agreed.

Chazz looked Jason's opponent over as they all paid attention to the duel again. 'Why does this guy look familiar?'

Behind all of them, in the trees, Aster himself was watching the duel. He figured since he had to wait for his accomplice, he might as well watch.

'Let's see how you do, Brother.'

Jason looked over his hand. 'I only dueled once this summer and I didn't even use my own cards. I used his.' He felt a giant pang in his heart, a friendly smile crossing his mind. He coughed as he got choked up, trying to hold back his tears and giving a glower to hide it.

His friends saw this and felt very bad for Jason. Knowing that your friend was killed wasn't easy and would hurt anyone, especially someone who used to be as shy and pleasant as Jason.

Now? The deaths changed him... changed him into a complete 180 of his former self.

Jason looked back down to his hand. "I guess I'll begin things off with summoning my Sir Galleth Cooper in attack mode." His voice was cold as he spoke, sending down chills everyone's spine minus Jaden, Alex, and the spying Aster. This was how Jason spoke when he had very angrily and maliciously murdered Alexis and Asami's attackers.

On his field, the knight armour wearing raccoon appeared with his broadsword. He spared a concerned look to Jason. (ATK: 1300/DEF: 1000)

"Are you all right, Sir Jason?" He asked. Jason nodded his head ever so slowly. "I know you're wishing Sir Shane was-"

"Shut up!" He yelled, stunning the crowd from his sudden yell. "Don't say his name! Or any of the others!" He pointed forward. "Just attack!"

Galleth frowned at being yelled at, but listened and charged in anyways. He sliced down to reveal that it was a Mystic Tomato before it was destroyed.

"Since you destroyed my Tomato, I get a Dark attribute monster with 1500 ATK points or less..." he took out his deck and fanned it open. "I choose Plague Wolf."

In the place of the tomato came a zombified dog, drooling at the mouth with two different coloured eyes and chipped off skin. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000)

Jason glowered at the new monster. 'He's weaker, so he must have an effect.' He looked over his hand. "I'll set two facedowns and end my turn." Two reversed cards appeared behind Galleth.

"Did you hear how Jason snapped at Galleth?" Alexis asked, very concerned for the younger Yuki twin.

"I think everyone at the Blue Dorm heard him." Chazz said.

"He hates it when they're brought up, but Shane is the worse." Jaden had to whisper so Jason didn't hear.

"Why exactly?" Bastion asked. He knew that every other member of The Domino Eight aside from Brian Phillips was a friend to the Yukis, but they never specified which were closer friends out of the bunch.

"Shane was Jason's best friend..." Jaden started. "They saved each other's lives, bonded over Duel Monsters, laughed at each other's dumb jokes, and even opened up on personal problems. They were very close. Jason even talked about giving him a fake identity so he can enroll here too."

The group was shocked.

"He might've been tight with everyone in the group and he might've been very sad when he watched Eren Franklin die, but Shane was the most important to him. He was his light in prison and his confidant, much like how Carlos Rodriguez was to me... only difference is that Carlos is still alive and Shane isn't."

"All of Jason's plans with Shane and even Jason's positivity got destroyed the moment Shane was murdered." No more explaining was needed. They all knew who killed him.

"Poor Jason..." Alexis sympathised. "Losing your best friend like that..." no one in their group could imagine having their best friend murdered like how Jason's was. It pained them too much to even think about it.

So how did Jason feel as he lived it?

Back to the duel, Alex drew his card. "I'll continue my move by playing my Malice Doll of Demise in Attack Mode!"

Everyone watched as a very creepy looking doll in overalls with a large axe appeared on the field. The doll's wide eyes were looking at Jason with insane bloodlust. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1700)

Jason gave his own bloodlust glare, which made the Malice doll cower.

Alex had to laugh. "Wow. I guess the rumors of you being dark were true."

Jason turned the glare to Alex. "I've killed people, escaped from two maximum security prisons, and had friends of mine killed. Of course I'm dark!"

Asami looked concerned.

Alex shrugged. "Good points. Anyway, now I'll play my Plague Wolf's effect. I can double his points for the turn."

The wolf howled. (ATK: 1000-2000)

"Now let's go and deal some damage. Plague Wolf, destroy his Sir Galleth Cooper with Sickening Fang!" The wolf made a move for Galleth, the knight looking very frightened.

Jason wouldn't watch another friend die, even if it was just a spirit.

"I reveal my Decoy trap card!" Galleth was sucked back into the deck as a black dummy version of the raccoon appeared. The wolf sunk his teeth into the decoy before hopping back. "Now I take no battle damage for the rest of the turn!"

Alex nodded slowly. "That's cool... but I don't need battle damage." At the group's confused faces, he figured he show them what he meant. "Next, I'll play the Spell Card Ectoplasmer!"

"Oh no!" Bastion gasped. "With that out, he doesn't need to do battle damage!"

"Correct Mr. Ra Yellow. This allows each player to sacrifice a monster on their field at the end of their turn. Then, half of the monster's Attack is dealt to the opponent as Direct Damage!"

"Bastion was right!" Atticus added.

"Jason's in trouble!" Syrus exclaimed.

Jaden watched the stoic form of Jason. 'He doesn't even care.' True to Jaden's word, Jason stared indifferently, as cold as the winter weather.

"And since I'll be losing Plague Wolf anyway, I'll tribute him instead of my doll."

A long white worm-like spirit rose from the Wolf and flew right through Jason's chest. The Slifer never winced as his points went down.

Jason: 7500

Alex: 8000

"And two facedowns will end my turn." Alex concluded, leaving him with two.

"Jason just took the first blow." Chazz observed.

"The tricky part is that with that Ectoplasmer out, Jason will have to sacrifice a monster every time he ends his turn. Unless he gets out more than one, he'll be defenseless and Alex can keep attacking him with that doll." Alexis explained.

"I'm sure he'll be able to figure something out." Asami said, her confidence in Jason strong.

Jason picked up his next card, having four. He glanced them over. "I'll first activate the Reinforcement of the Army magic card to add a Warrior type monster to my hand."

He took his desired card.

"Then I'll summon it. Come out, Sly Cooper."

His trademark monster appeared on the field, his blue cap situated on his head with his matching blue shirt looking tight on his chest. (ATK: 1500/DEF: 1200)

Like with Galleth, Sly gave a concerned look over to Jason. He was however a little smarter in not calling Jason out on his feelings, knowing he would snap.

"And then I'll hook him up with Cooper Family Cane to raise his strength up by 1000." The golden cane appeared in Sly's hand. (ATK: 1500-2500)

"But before I attack, I'll use his ability to snag a random card from your hand." His friend swiped the cane over to Alex, snagging a card from his hand and tossing it to Jason. He looked at the card. "Megamorph, huh?" He smirked. "And since I have a lower score, let's equip it to Sly..."

"Whoa!" Sly exclaimed as he was outfitted in a glowing blue aura that encased his body. (ATK: 1500-3000-4000)

"Wow that's overkill!" Atticus stated with a shocked tone.

"Jason doesn't usually duel this viciously," Syrus noticed. "He usually wins strategically when he duels, not through brute force."

Jaden knew the change, he just didn't voice it out loud. Yubel, however, appeared to talk about it.

"He's angry..." she kept her voice low so Chazz, Alexis, Asami, and Jason couldn't hear. "He's so upset about the deaths of the others that he wants to take his anger out on anyone."

'I thought his anger would've died down when we took out the assailants.' Jaden wondered. 'We did do some hardcore shit. I would think Jason would've felt better.'

Yubel frowned. "Are you...?"

Jaden frowned right back. 'Good point...'

"Now attack!" Jason exclaimed. Sly rushed in for the swing, slicing through Malice Doll's body.

"You should've taken my facedowns into account," Alex said. "I reveal Dimension Wall. Now all damage I take is to you for that attack."

Jason growled as a stream of dark blue energy hit him in the chest.

Jason: 5100

Alex: 8000

"Damn!" Chazz exclaimed. "Almost down to half his points! How the hell did that happen!?"

"Anger..." Bastion looked on with his arms folded. Everyone looked to him. "Jason's anger is clouding his head, making him mess up on particularly simple moves. If he wasn't angry, he would've taken Alex's traps into account before he went in. He's a smart duelist, although he isn't acting like it."

Jason growled. "Then it's a good thing I had this!" His second trap flipped up to show Murray the Hippo pounding his chest in a fury. "Thanks to Primal Roar, since I took 2000 or more points of damage, I get to special summon out another monster of mine."

He searched his deck before finding it, slamming it on the disk. "Come out Murray and sucker punch this guy!"

A giant pink hippopotamus wearing a yellow wrestling mask and red gloves appeared before he followed on Jason's command, sucker punching Alex in the face.

Aster had to laugh. 'Better put some ice on that, Alex.'

Jason: 5100

Alex: 6000

Jason smirked, "Take that..."

Alex rubbed his jaw as he observed his opponent. 'So, Sartorius was correct...'

...

Alex was currently standing in the same white room Aster was in with the cloaked man, known as Sartorius.

"When you find this Jason, he's to defeat you in a duel, understood?" He asked as he looked over to Alex. "I have to see if he's one of the chosen ones!"

"Chosen ones?" Alex wondered. "I don't remember you being particularly interested in anyone besides me and Aster, although he's a pro while I'm still trying to get noticed." He sighed. "But why this guy? He's a criminal."

"Have I ever steered you wrong before?" The cloaked man asked.

Alex seemed to think it over before sighing. "Okay, but I'm not dueling with my real deck..." Alex shrugged. "I see no need to get serious..."

"Whatever you want, Mr. Phoenix."

...

Alex shook his head. 'But he fell for a cliché move all because he's a little bit pissed about life... I'm not sure if he's that great.'

He turned his attention back to the duel. "You gotta sacrifice a monster due to Ectoplasmer."

"I know!" Jason snapped. He didn't want to do this. Didn't want to sacrifice a friend and watch them be taken away from something out of his control again. Still, he had to do it.

A little bit thinking later, he sighed as he begrudgingly chose. "I sacrifice Sly..."

"Huh?" That apparently wasn't the answer that the crowd was thinking as the same white worm from Alex's turn appeared and shot out of Sly and to Alex.

Jason: 5100

Alex: 5250

"I'm confused." Syrus was the one that said it. "Why Sly? He had 4000 ATK points."

"But he was also equipped with Megamorph," Asami reminded. "Alex could've used that to his advantage by damaging himself to have lower points, which would cut Sly's score in half, and then Jason would've been in trouble."

"Plus Murray can't be destroyed." Jaden stated. "It was the smarter move to make."

Alex smiled. "Interesting move. You really are smarter than I thought."

Jason frowned at indirectly being called dumb. He might've not been as book smart as he would've liked to be, but he had a decent IQ in his opinion. He felt he was more street smart though, especially after the events of the summer.

Alexis had to frown too. "Am I the only one who doesn't like this guy?"

Asami looked over to her best friend with interest. "I agree that he is a bit of a stuck up guy," she smiled a little. "But you're really protective of Jason now."

Jaden looked to his girlfriend, anticipating the answer with the most interest he's shown in months.

Alexis blushed a little. "He's like a little brother to me. Of course I'm protective of him. I think we all are of each other after what happened."

Her words rang true and everyone stayed silent, though there was two people in the group who were really concerned about not just Jason, but Jaden too.

Atticus looked to Jason while Syrus looked to Jaden.

Alex drew his card, bringing himself back to two. "I reveal my second facedown card Call of the Haunted!" The well known trap flipped up. "Now I revive Malice Doll of Demise!"

The doll was brought back, fearful of Jason after the stink eye he had given it. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1700)

"And I'll play Pot of Greed to draw twice." He did so, he smirked at his findings. "And now I'll summon out Mask of Darkness in Attack Mode!" A green mask appeared. (ATK: 900/DEF: 400)

"Now I'll set a facedown and play Bait Doll to activate it..." Alex smirked as his trap flipped up, causing the others to look shocked.

Crush Card Virus.

"Now all monsters with 1500 or more ATK points will be destroyed!" Bastion gasped as Giant Orc was evaporated by a purple substance.

"Correct once again Mr. Ra Yellow. Now Jason's monster is destroyed since it has more than 1500 ATK points." Alex smirked as the purple substance traveled to Murray, enveloping him the same as Mask of Darkness.

"It hurts!" Murray whined and groaned, which made Jason's eye widen. He gritted his teeth as he was forced to think once again about the pain his friends must've been in as they died.

It just made him more vengeful and angry.

"Now let's see your hand..."

Jason revealed it to show Bentley and a card called Mask Change.

Jaden became very curious. 'Huh? Why's that in his deck? He doesn't have Heroes anymore.'

Alex nodded. "Now Malice Doll, attack Jason directly!"

The doll laughed darkly before throwing its axe at Jason. The Slifer groaned in pain as it passed right through him.

Jason: 3500

Alex: 5250

"And I end my turn, but don't forget the effect of Ectoplasmer..." Alex reminded as his doll vanished and its spirit wrapped itself around Jason's body, damaging him more.

Jason: 2700

Alex: 5250

"Jason!" His friends were concerned at his drop of points.

Aster wasn't impressed. 'This is the other guy Sartorius wanted to check? He's worse than Jaden. I can't see anything special about him other than also being a member of The Domino Eight and also a member of the Red Road Three.'

He spared a glance to his brother. 'Plus Alex is using his deck from when we were first starting. And by the look on his face, he's just toying around.' While his brother wasn't as good as him, he was still pretty good in his own right. He could let up with the toying around sometimes though.

Alex shrugged. "It's your move..."

Jason growled as he drew his card, turning it as per the effects of the Deck Virus trap. "I play Pot of Greed to draw twice." He did. He drew Tennessee Kid Cooper and Salim Al Kupar Cooper.

Jason was peeved he wasn't getting the card that he wanted. He did smirk however when he drew Salim. That meant he had another chance.

He discarded Tennessee since he had 1600 ATK points. "Now I'll summon the monster I just drew! Salim Al Kupar Cooper!"

Slapping the card onto his disk, an old purple fur raccoon wearing Arabian robes appeared in front of Jason, looking very tired. (ATK: 1200/DEF: 2000)

The raccoon scoffed at Jason. "Why must you summon me when you have another choice!?" He asked rather angrily. He was the only duel spirit of Jason's that didn't change his attitude towards Jason upon his latest trauma. In a weird way, Jason appreciated it.

Jason however gave him a scoff in return. "Because I need my Pot of Greed back and your ability gets it out my graveyard." He gave a fake smile. "So please get it?"

Salim pouted. "I helped you save the entire world at the end of your first year and helped you escape jail. You could at least let me rest." Nonetheless, he compiled with Jason's request and gave him back his spell card per his effect.

"Nice," Atticus nodded at the play. "Now he can have another shot at getting cards that he needs."

"But what does he need?" Jaden whispered the question to himself. That Mask Change card was what was perplexing him. He knew that card, but also knew that Jason couldn't use it in this deck of his. He must've had a way to use it or it wouldn't be in his deck to begin with.

But how?

Jason reused Pot of Greed, drawing twice more. Once he drew, he revealed them to Alex per the Deck Devastation Virus effect.

The two cards were Hidden Armory and... the card Jason was hoping for...

Hero Field. A new card of his he has created.

Shortly after the whole Domino Eight incident finally died down, he was visited by his friend Chumley. Chumley had heard of Jaden and Jason's predicament and arrived to Domino City to visit them. He offered to help them in anyway he could, even offering to make them new cards.

Jaden took a rain check while Jason only thought of one card he wanted.

A card that let him use the archetype of his dead friend Shane within his deck.

"I just won this duel..." he said, getting very confused looks from everyone.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "I am curious as to how you're gonna do that considering I'm very ahead."

Jason actually smiled. "I'm gonna win from the help of your Ectoplasmer and from the help of a very dear friend of mine..."

That was when Jaden was struck with realization.

"Tweener..." he whispered in both shock and a little bit of awe.

Jason inserted the new spell, which turned out to be a continuous spell card. It depicted Elemental Hero Sparkman handing over his mask to Elemental Hero Voltic.

He looked to his confused opponent. "As long as this spell remains on the field, all of my monsters are treated as a 'Hero' monster..."

"Wow..." Asami whispered.

"So that's the card Chum made him." Syrus figured out.

"Although I am a little confused as to why he needs a card like this." Atticus questioned.

Jaden answered. "His friend Shane had a deck as well." He started to explain, all his friends' eyes on him. "He used another archetype of Heroes called 'Masked Heroes'. I knew of them, but never got the chance to find them for myself."

"There's a series of Heroes you don't have?" Alexis mocked gasped.

Jaden had to smile and chuckle at that. "Cute. Yeah, I don't have them. Shane gave them to Jason as a sign of their friendship and as thanks for letting him escape with us..."

He stared at his brother. "They're Jason's now and he deserves them. They allow him to remember our friend and keep his memory alive..."

"You're right, Jay..." Jason answered. He then smiled. "I'll explain in more detail my card's effect in a second... Salim direct attack!"

"I think you ruined what was left of my hearing!" He exclaimed before strolling over to Alex. He very lazily flicked him on the forehead before walking back.

Jason: 2700

Alex: 4050

Jason took his Mask Change spell card. "Now I'll play the quick spell card Mask Change!" The spell depicted a man dashing across space while his face was shining. "This takes one Hero monster on my side of the field, which Salim now qualifies as and special summons another Hero monster from my deck called a Masked Hero!"

He looked to Salim. "Salim, time to transform!"

"All right!" He shouted in aggravation as a sliver mask appeared on the field by Salim's face. The mask flew towards and attached to his face and was soon enveloped by a bright light. Once it died down, Salim was now encased within a diamond like armor with yellow streaks traveling down his new armor. He carried a long spear as a blue cape blew in the wind. (ATK: 2800/DEF: 3000)

"Meet Masked Hero Dian!"

Asami was in awe of her boyfriend's new monster. "Cool..."

"Shane had some cool cards..." Alexis stared in amazement.

"It's amazing!" Chazz was also in awe while everyone else nodded in agreement.

Jaden thought his opinion on the creature. 'So you save him even beyond death, huh Tweener?' He smiled as he thought of the deceased boy.

Aster was almost livid as he continued to hide in the shadows. 'Masked Heroes?! These Yukis just love giving Heroes a bad name!'

"Impressive monster..." Alex nodded, already knowing the end result now.

Jason nodded. "A very dear friend gave me these cards and I swore to use them in his honor after his untimely death..."

He closed his eye in a silent remembrance of his friend for a few seconds before he opened it back up. "Dian, attack with Hero Spear!"

The new Hero clutched his spear as he jumped up in the air. He then started diving towards Alex, spear held out as he hit the top of his duel disk.

Jason: 2700

Alex: 1250

"And now I'll end, which activates your Ectoplasmer..." he said no more as the familiar white worm like creature came out of Dian and struck Alex.

Jason: 2700 (Winner)

Alex: 0

Jason nodded as the holograms disappeared. "I win..." he said as he walked over to his opponent. "Good game though."

"Likewise," Alex nodded as Jason reached him. "Although I gotta tell ya I didn't expect Masked Heroes."

"They were my friend's..." he said.

"I'm gonna guess that weirdo looking Shane Nelson since you guys were reported as being very good friends during your time in prison."

Jason saw red after hearing that. He grabbed the helm of Alex's shirt and yanked him closer until their noses were touching, teeth gritted in anger.

"Damn..." Jaden cursed as he moved in. Everyone else did too since they all saw and knew what Jason was capable of now.

Jason moved his lips to Alex's ear and whispered menacingly. "Say his name like that again and I swear on not just his grave, but on the graves of my other friends, that I'll end you." He then shoved him away, Alex barely standing on his feet.

He dusted himself off. "See ya..." he started walking away just as Jaden and the others reached Jason. ' I guess he could be what Sartorius wants after all, despite the anger management problems he has.' Alex said as he kept walking. He smirked. 'But the only way to know for sure is to duel him with my real deck...'

He approached the area where Aster was hiding. He walked through so Jason and the others didn't notice Aster as they walked away in silence, only exchanging a small nod with each other.

Jaden sighed in what sounded like relief. "I thought you were gonna kill him..." Jason's silence gave Jaden all the answer he needed. His brother thought about doing it. It scared him. Every time Jason did or almost did something dark, it just seemed to erase what was left of his shy adorable twin brother that he knew his entire life.

Jason shrugged. "I was feeling generous."

Despite how scary he sounded, Asami still gave her boyfriend a kiss on his cheek. "Good job, Sweetie..."

"Very impressive comeback." Chazz nodded, Jason giving one back.

"Only the first morning back and Jaden and Jason already dueled." Syrus listed.

"And Jaden's opponent was a pro." Alexis reminded.

Bastion smirked. "My my, if this is any indication then this year will be more eventful than the last..."

"No!" Jaden snapped, getting shocked glances from everyone. Jason just stared. "I already saved the world once and just came back from getting arrested, shot at, being on the run, and killing people!" He counted. "I want some peace and quiet for once!"

He then stormed off to his room, ascending the stairs loudly and slamming the door shut behind him.

Chazz frowned. "He didn't have to scream like that."

Asami stared worriedly.

Alexis voiced her concern. "Jaden does have a point. After all he's done and been through, it only seems fair that he gets some peace and quiet."

"Yeah well, life isn't fair Alexis." Jason spoke. "Life likes to kick me and Jaden down and not give us any kind of break." He turned to Syrus. "You know what I mean..." he then walked off to the room next to Jaden's, entering it a lot more quietly than Jaden had his.

All eyes were on Syrus now. "What does that mean?" Asami asked, not knowing what Jason can mean by that. She thought she knew everything about him and to hear that she didn't was concerning her.

Syrus gulped before shaking his head. "It's not my place to say. Jason made me swear not to tell anyone about it." Everyone frowned, but left him alone on the matter for now, which made Syrus sigh in relief.

He, however, found himself thinking about what Jason exactly meant.

'I'm dying, Syrus. My wound is slowly killing me.'

The Roid duelist shivered as the words repeated themselves. 'I don't know how I can tell anyone, let alone Asami, that. I can't even believe it myself...'

He looked up to the doors that Jaden and Jason entered as everyone else did. Coincidentally, they all thought the same thing:

'We needs to help them before they destroy themselves...'

...

Back at the docks, Bonaparte and Crowler were sitting down in a slump waiting all day for Aster to show up off the boat. It was evening now and all that came were new students that weren't worth recognizing to them.

"I can't believe he's not here! We've been stood up!" Crowler complained, "This school needs a star, not more slackers!"

Before the short Vice Chancellor could agree, an Obelisk Blue student walked down the ramp. She was a 5'5 tall teen with long golden blonde hair that went to her mid-back with stunning dark brown eyes. She was quite the looker.

"An Obelisk Blue student!" Crowler praised as he ran over to girl and shook her hand. "Welcome to Duel Academy, young lady!"

"Thanks..." The girl replied, not all that weirded out by their eagerness. "I'm really happy and psyched to be here." She then smiled. "Can I ask a question?"

"Ask away!" Crowler encouraged.

A dreamy look and a blush grew on her face as she shyly asked, "Does Jason Yuki attend this school?"

Crowler and Bonaparte each shared a look with one another before turning back to the eagerly awaiting Obelisk girl.

"He's a second year Slifer," Crowler said.

"A second year criminal Slifer Slacker." Bonaparte added with some disdain.

That comment did little to upset the now beaming Obelisk. "Yes!" She pumped her fist in the air. She gained control over herself. "Anyway, I was told to see the headmistress of the Obelisk Blue Girls Dorm to check in..."

"Just follow the path down that way and there's a rowboat that'll take you there!" Crowler pointed out.

"Thanks..."

"Chancellor Crowler!"

"Good to meet you, Chancellor Crowler. Bye!" She walked off in the direction Crowler pointed, a giant grin still on her face after hearing Jason Yuki attended this school.

"How can she wanna know about that Slifer?" Crowler asked.

"Misaki Haruno," Bonaparte read off of a clipboard. "A talented duelist for her caliber. Really too good for that criminal." He said.

Another girl in the Obelisk uniform stepped off of the boat. This one had long brown hair tied into a ponytail with two bangs hanging off her face and blue eyes. She was around 5'6. Like with Misaki, she was also quite attractive.

"More Obelisks!" Crowler beamed. "Welcome to Duel Academy!"

"The pleasure is mine," she nodded with a southern accent. "I hear this is the school of the best duelists, so I figured I enroll myself."

Crowler and Bonaparte were ecstatic at another Obelisk in their ranks. One was immediately horrified with what she said next:

"Especially since I heard Jaden and Jason Yuki are in this school..."

"What is it with those slackers having a good reputation!" Bonaparte exclaimed, causing the new Obelisk and Crowler to take a step back.

"They're criminals!" He reminded.

The new girl shrugged. "What they did in their past don't interest me. I want a challenge and I hear those two can give it." She then walked off in the direction Misaki left.

"Not one, but two Obelisks are interested in those two!?" Bonaparte was flabbergasted.

He shook his head. "Hikaru Paul," Bonaparte read off again. "I guess that saying of girls liking the bad boys is true," Bonaparte said.

"Left, Left! Left, Right, Left!"

"What in the?" Both Chancellors asked, turning to the source.

It was then a dark-skinned student walked down the gangplank, a military issue backpack at his back. Tied around his head was a yellow bandana, made to look like a dinosaur's head. Sticking out the back of it were black dreadlocks that shot out in all directions. The yellow blazer he wore had no sleeves, showing off thick muscles. Around his legs were a pair of tan khakis and he walked in thick steel-toed boots.

"Hey ladies! Can you direct me to who's in charge around here?" The boy asked.

"Ladies!?" They both asked.

"You heard me!"

"I'm in charge around…" But the man seized the collar of his jacket, halting what Crowler was about to say.

"I demand to know why I'm stuck in the yellow barracks! I want blue!" The man demanded.

"Bonaparte… Anytime you want to jump in…" Crowler muttered to the short man.

"What my colleague here is trying to say is that you don't want to be an Obelisk Blue. You're way too daring," the vice chancellor explained. "A thrill seeker like you would never wanna be stuck in the blues."

"Yes, that's right! You're way too daring!" Crowler agreed.

"Oh really? Well thanks! You gals are alright!" He continued storming off in the same fashion he stepped down on.

"Now as I was saying, we need a star like Aster Phoenix, not more slackers," Crowler sighed. For a moment, Bonaparte crossed his arms in thought when an idea hit him.

"Why do we need Aster Phoenix when we can have our own school of stars?" Bonaparte asked.

"I'm not sure I follow."

"I mean we eliminate the Slifer Red dorm. Its reputation isn't exactly gonna improve with both Yukis in it, not that it had any to begin with. With all of the slackers gone, we can focus on turning all our other students into stars!" Crowler stared at his colleague in confusion as Bonaparte began to laugh.

"Excuse me, what?"

Both turned around at the new voice. Standing there was a man with dark blonde hair that went down to his shoulders and dark brown eyes. He wore a suit and tie that had the jacket unbuttoned. He had a Glock 17 handgun holstered on his side with a police badge hanging from his neck.

"Oh yes, there he is!" Crowler walked over to the man. "Welcome to Duel Academy!" He shook hands with him.

The man nodded, "Pleasure is mine..."

Bonaparte swore he saw this guy before. A few seconds later, his eyes widened as he caught on. "What's Aaron Elric, a member of the Red Road Three, doing here?!"

"He's the new headmaster for Slifer Red." Crowler answered.

"What!?" He turned to the police officer. "Aren't you a cop!? Why're you here for the slackers!?"

Aaron glared, scaring the short man. "Not anymore. I transferred out. I can't be anywhere near that line of work anymore." He felt his chest constrict.

"That still doesn't explain anything!"

Aaron continued to glare. "I need a new job, so I applied for this one a few weeks ago."

"But why!?"

"My daughter hates me and her boyfriend, who I'm sure will be my future son-in-law, despises me for what I did while hunting down the Domino Eight. I want to fix all that..."

He kept the glare going. "Not that that's any of your business or concern..." he warned. "Plus," he reached into his suit pocket, pulling out a folded document. "I used to teach at Dueling Community College before I became a cop. I'm qualified for the job..."

Crowler nodded, "Since he's the father of one of our best students, and since Sheppard authorized it two weeks back, he's here to stay..."

"At least for the year," Aaron said. "I'll decide if I'll be back next year at the end of this one." He shrugged. He turned back to Bonaparte. "And I reckon you don't call my new students Slackers again... Or call Jaden and Jason 'criminals'."

Bonaparte, knowing that Aaron was responsible for the deaths of half of the Domino Eight, nodded fearfully.

"Good... I'll go situate myself..." he said as he left. As he walked and got far enough away from the two men, he pulled a ballpoint pen out from his pocket. He pulled off the cover and started to unscrew the top. Once it was open, two pills fell out from the inside. He downed them both.

These were Anti-Depressant pills.

Aaron's guilt over everything that he had done was still eating him alive. He killed four of Jaden and Jason's friends while trying to kill them too under threat from Slade and Jagger Princeton that they'll have his family raped and killed if he didn't do it.

Walter Anderson was the first. Aaron had to kill him even though he was coming in quietly... Killed him after he just finished asking his son Jesse if he'll come visit him in prison. It broke his heart.

Eren 'S-Circuit' Franklin, while the third, was the next one he thought of. The poor man was mentally ill and he still had to die. Aaron broke down into tears when he shoved him off the roof where he chased him... Where Jason saw the whole thing, adding onto his hatred for him and cementing it if it somehow wasn't already.

Andrew 'Sawbuck' Jackson was the fourth. A man that was a father just like him. Aaron had to make him agree to let him shoot him by threatening to have his wife arrested for accessory and have his daughter placed in a terrible foster home if he didn't do it. He felt like the devil.

But the worse was his second kill...

Shane 'Tweener' Nelson...

Jason's best friend that he made in prison.

Aaron pulled him off to the side of an abandoned road and gunned him down in cold blood. The poor boy was no older than Jaden and Jason... Wasn't any older than his daughter and he killed him. He looked so scared when the gun came out that Aaron almost didn't do it. But, in the end, his love for his wife and kids made him pull the trigger on the kid... three times...

And created Jason's hatred for him. Aaron wasn't sure how he was gonna take seeing him, but he knew it wasn't gonna be good. He didn't tell Asami over the phone since he knew she'll tell Jason and the boy would begin finding ways to kill him.

Not that Aaron blamed him.

He did kill his friends.

But that wasn't why he still had his gun with him. He still had his gun because of what happened a week ago to his family. The attempted rape and murder of them all. He was so paranoid and so jumpy after what happened that if he didn't have his weapon on him, he would go crazy.

He would also like some kind of prop to hold Jason at bay.

He had no intention of pulling the trigger, but he needed to keep Jason at bay from trying anything. It was more of a bluff than anything. He could never kill the boy his baby girl clearly loved with all her heart.

So it shocked him that he even shot at Jason at all during the summer.

He just didn't want Jason to go back to prison. Asami would be devastated.

And the pills started taking effect, clouding Aaron's thoughts and making it easier for him to handle thinking about what he's done. He breathed out easily as he continued forward, just walking aimlessly. He wasn't heading for the Slifer Dorm anytime soon. He wasn't ready for Jason to see him.

And he wasn't ready to see him.

End of Chapter 1 of Gentle Darkness vs. Light of Destruction

We have many plotlines introduced, but the main three will be the battle against the Light of Destruction, Aaron's descent into depression, and Jaden and Jason's attempts to recover after all they've been through. It's gonna be a very eventful and dramatic season.

So pretty much every big plot point from The Domino Eight has been spoiled here. Hope you guys will still read the story itself to see these events actually unfold.

:'(

Yeah readers of The Domino Eight. Walter, Tweener, and Sawbuck die. You haven't met S-Circuit yet, but you'll like him. Banger dies too, but no one cares about that and you're likely happy that he did. Carlos is still alive, just so you know. Whether or not he's still in prison will be revealed next chapter.

Asami's dad Aaron is the new Slifer headmaster and is also the one who killed the members of The Domino Eight except Banger. I foreshadowed a new headmaster in Season 1 and I think Aaron could bring a lot of interesting drama to the story due to all he's done and will do in The Domino Eight. Definitely a fun character to work with.

Jaden and Jason are definitely suffering from PTSD. Jason's anger hasn't been fully seen yet, but you'll definitely see it in the next chapter. He and Aaron are NOT gonna be friends.

And we also have the introduction to two female OCs. The reason being that I feel we need more females to balance out all the males in the group. They'll also add on to Jaden and Jason's problems for the drama.

Hope you enjoyed and remember to favorite, alert, and review if you did.

Next Time: Chapter 2


	2. Confrontation! A Very Shady Future!

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Only own any OCs**.**

**AN: Yeah, I said I was gonna do the fifth chapter of The Domino Eight next, and I started to do it... but then my phone crashed and I lost the chapter. So, I'm very pissed right now and don't feel like writing it again at the moment. Normally when I lose a chapter, because it's happened before, I won't want to write that chapter again for awhile due to my creative juices being on hold.**

**I'll still do this since I need something to do. My inspiration is low right now for TD8 after my incident with the phone that I need to try and get a laptop so I don't lose anything due to a phone malfunction. So, TD8 is temporarily on hold for the next month and a half, maybe two to see if I can get a laptop so this doesn't happen again.**

**Anyway, thanks to all the feedback. The amount of favorites and alerts blew my mind. Over 80 favorites and over 70 alerts and it's only the first chapter! Thank you! Of course I would love a little bit more reviews but that's just because I love hearing from you guys and talking to you. If not for all the kind words and reviews, this series wouldn't have made it to the Shadow Rider arc back in Season 1.**

**There's also a poll on my page I'm curious for y'all to answer.**

**We get more insight on Jaden's thoughts about everything that's happened to him and Chazz's duel with Reggie. Jason also has what I like to call a 'Crazy Angry Spazz Out Murder Attempt' in this chapter.**

**Enjoy**

Chapter 2-

Jaden was sitting in the chair by the desk in his room, head down as he scrolled through his PDA. It was one in the morning and he couldn't sleep. He still had his Slifer jacket and black T-shirt on, but was wearing dark red pajama pants. He was wearing socks as well, although they were stained with blood.

He just woke up from a nightmare around twenty minutes ago. He didn't really remember too much detail about the dream, but he guessed it was about either some of the people he killed or his friends that died.

It was the only two things he had loads of regret over.

Knowing he wasn't gonna fall asleep anytime soon, he settled for occupying his time with small activities until the sun came up. With no one up to duel and having a very restricted summer when it came to activities, he decided to see how much the worldwide web changed during his time inside.

Other than loads and loads of news stories about them, not much had changed. He wasn't looking for or doing anything in particular, just clicking on links to see where they took him. Who knows? It may bring him some place cool and new. He could get a new hobby.

Syrus and Chazz were on the other two bunks in the room with him, the latter on the top bunk and the former on the middle bunk. Jason was in his own room that he never used last year, commenting that he was tired of sharing space with others after his time in prison and wanted his own room now. That might've been what he said, but Jaden knew what he really meant.

He didn't want to share a room with anyone anymore because of the nightmares. He didn't want to cause anyone trouble with him screaming or crying in the middle of the night. Either that, or he just wanted to be alone.

Jaden had them too, but not to Jason's extent. When Jaden had his nightmares, he usually just woke up gasping for air and that was it. It wasn't as bad due to getting used to bad dreams for years after his massacre.

Jason on the other hand had night terrors. He woke up sweating, crying, choking on air, and in pain all at once. It was bad because of their traumatizing adventure the last two months. They got little to no sleep, seen the worst of humanity, and in Jason's case, was stuck in a prison that was run by the prisoners and had done disgusting things to stay alive. The toll it took on him was astounding. Jaden was surprised that Jason hadn't snapped yet.

'Well... maybe he has just a little bit.' He thought to himself as he found his way to a news website. He scrolled through it to find the headline. He blinked when he saw his, Jason's, and Aaron's faces on the page with the headline right above.

It read 'Domino Eight Conspiracy Unravelled. Two Twins and FBI Agent Exonerated.'

So this was the newspaper that detailed their freedom, he thought to himself. He and Jason didn't bother reading the news or watching the news after their exoneration. It only reminded them of everything they did and everything they've seen. All though they will never forget, the less reminders the better.

He gave a smile at the name detailed at the bottom of the page. Gerard Sato. Never in a million years would he ever thought that the guy he met trying to score big at the Duel Off would help free him and his brother. Gerard had met up with them sometime after Tweener's death and expressed his belief that something was wrong with their arrest. He worked with Chazz, Syrus, and Zane to look for the evidence that was clearly out there to free them.

Atticus was helping too, but he broke off and went to get a job at the second prison Jason was in to keep an eye on him.

This was definitely a summer that'll never be forgotten, neither by them or the rest of the general public.

Jaden owed so many people so many thanks that he will never be able to express his gratitude over his lifetime. Still, he thanked Gerard everyday since he made himself known for helping to free them.

As he thought about the past, his PDA suddenly went off. An unknown number was calling him. He narrowed his eyes. Who the hell is calling him so late at night? And why was the number unknown?

Answering with suspicion, he was brought face to face with a surprising individual. It was a Hispanic man wearing a brown leather jacket and blue jeans. He was grinning at him.

"Jaden, my man!" He commented.

Jaden had to smile back. "Carlos!" He nodded. He stood up and exited the room, shutting the door behind him and standing on the outside platform. "What brings you here to call me at one in the morning?"

"It's one in the morning?" He asked. He looked very confused right now.

Jaden blinked. "Yeah. Where're you that you don't know that?"

Carlos smiled. "Mexico..."

"Mexico?"

"I'm finally back home, papi." He said. He looked really happy and Jaden was too after hearing that. Carlos Rodriguez was one of his best friends, despite the big age gap between them. When you went through what they did, age simply became a number and was forgotten shortly after. "I'm home on my uncle's farm and it's all because of you."

Jaden smiled. Since he and Jason were framed for their crime, they were given anything that they wanted to stop them from suing the city for their false imprisonment due to corrupt judges and lawyers. He was very surprised at how far the justice system would go to save themselves from a lawsuit they definitely wouldn't win against. The reason he said this was because all they asked for was Carlos' exoneration in addition to theirs. Since his crime was only robbery, they begrudgingly gave it to them.

Plus, they made sure to give a story that he was in cahoots with them since the beginning to help get their freedom back; two innocent kids. A good sob story went far if used correctly; and with Asami's father and Alexis' mother having connections, it made it easier.

He was their only friend left from prison that was alive. They wouldn't be able to live knowing he was still in prison serving more time for two escapes.

"Thank you, bro. I owe you and Jason my life."

Jaden shook his head. "You don't owe us anything, Carlos. You're our friend and we do anything for our friends. If anything, I should be thanking you for keeping Jason save in Red Road."

Carlos shook his head in return. "I still need to say thanks. I was able to take a plane. A plane! All without worrying about getting caught and going back to prison! It's the best feeling ever!"

He looked so damn happy. Jaden was happy too for his friend. He just wished the others survived long enough to get their freedoms back too.

"Megumi with you?" Jaden asked, wondering where his friend's fiancé was.

"She's taking a nap," Carlos explained. "She told me to tell you thanks for helping get my freedom back."

Jaden smiled amusingly. "Just be sure to tell her to raise my nephew or niece as a great person." He said.

"Speaking of, we finally decided on a name for each gender."

"Really?" Jaden was intrigued. Last time he talked to Carlos about his upcoming kid, which was before the latter turned himself in, he and his fiancé couldn't decide what to name their baby.

Carlos nodded. "For a boy: Jaden Jason Rodriguez. For a girl: Melody Yuki Rodriguez."

Jaden was needless to say shocked. He wasn't expecting that. "You're gonna name your kid with our names?"

"Without you, I wouldn't even be alive to see my kid. This is the least I can do." He smiled.

"Well I'm honored and I know Jason will be too..."

Carlos nodded before they fell silent. The former prisoner broke it a second later. "How is Jason doing?"

Jaden very easily saw the worry on the man's face. Jason and Carlos had gotten closer as they were trapped in Red Road prison together. By the look of that second prison, East Domino was a summer home by default. That was where the absolute worst people were sent. Hell, the name was changed due to the only way out of there being in a body bag. Surviving in there didn't come without consequences.

The elder twin sighed. "He's doing better I think..." he shrugged. "He's still upset about Tweener, but you can probably guess that for yourself."

Carlos nodded. The friendship of those two was well known amongst the Domino Eight members. It was arguably the strongest.

"He and I both have been having nightmares about everything."

"That makes three of us."

Jaden was surprised. "You too?"

Carlos frowned. "This has been one messed up summer, papi." Jaden gave him that. He was sure everyone has been having nightmares about the last two months. Not one person was spared emotional or physical scarring; whether it was one of the escaped prisoners or the innocent of their friends.

"On the bright side though," Jaden continued, now grinning. "He and his girlfriend finally did it!"

Carlos' jaw hit the ground. "It!?"

"It!"

"You mean 'it' it!?"

"It it!"

"Holy shit!" Carlos laughed. "At sixteen!?"

"Yep!"

Jaden had heard from Jason shortly after their freedom was given back that he and Asami made up for lost time. Thinking wrong at first, Jaden assumed he meant making out since that was what he and Lex did, although they upgraded to the stage of feeling each other up.

According to Jason though, that's what he and Asami started with, but then things happened and they just ended up having sex.

He was happy for him, albeit a little shocked his younger twin popped his cherry before he did.

Carlos continued laughing. "Good for him! At least something good happened to him." He softened his gaze.

"True that..." Jaden agreed before he looked out over the railing. He saw what looked to be a lone figure coming towards the Slifer dorm. He couldn't see exactly who it was though, squinting his eyes to try and get a better look. He could barely make out the blonde hair, but he could tell that it was a male.

"Papi?" He heard Carlos ask for him.

"Huh?" Jaden brought his attention back to his PDA.

"You okay, bro?"

Jaden nodded. "Yeah..." he looked back ahead, seeing the figure grow closer. He sighed. "Someone's come up Carlos, I gotta go."

Carlos nodded. "I get ya. I gotta check on Megumi anyways." He smiled. "It's good to hear from ya."

Jaden smiled too. "Same here."

"I'll talk to you later, bro."

"See ya, Carlos." With that, they each hung up. Jaden pocketed the PDA before he decided to descend down the steps to see who the hell was coming to the Slifer Dorm so late at night.

His senses were still high, never lowering his guard since the moment the news of Walter's death reached him.

He stepped down the last step at the same time the wandering figure made it to the dorm. Both locked eyes and Jaden found himself shocked for the second time in the last five minutes.

"Aaron?" He almost stuttered.

Aaron was wide eyed as he saw Jaden, but he quickly dropped it and settled for what sounded like a relieved sigh instead.

"Thank god it's you, Jaden." He said. "I thought you were Jason."

"What the hell are you doing here?" He asked the first, and probably the most obvious, question that came to mind. He wasn't angry, just very confused.

Aaron pointed to the Slifer Dorm. "I'm the new headmaster."

"Get the fuck out of here," Jaden had to laugh. Sure he knew Aaron used to teach at Duel College based on what Asami told him, but here as a headmaster? It was so far fetched, especially since Aaron was now known as 'The Domino Executioner'. Getting hired for a job here with that on his résumé was very low.

Aaron didn't blink or retort to Jaden's comment.

He stopped laughing. "Oh my god, you're serious."

Aaron nodded. "Yep."

"No offense, but why would Crowler hire you? I mean, you're a cop and you're known as the guy who killed half of the Domino Eight." Jaden listed off. "Getting another job with that hovering around isn't exactly easy."

Aaron agreed. "Yeah, but Crowler didn't hire me. Sheppard did." He sighed as he walked past Jaden and took a seat on the bottom step of the staircase. "I needed a new job, Jaden. I can't go back to being a cop..."

"No one faults you for what you did." Jaden leaned on the banister. "It's been proven that you were forced to kill the others to protect your family. Its why you're not in prison for murder. I can't see how anyone would hold that against you."

"Except Jason..." Aaron muttered.

Jaden sighed. "Aside from him..."

"No one holds it against me. You're right. My station didn't force me to leave. I left of my own accord." Aaron waited for Jaden to ask why. Jaden didn't answer, but Aaron could guess he was wondering. "I can't go back after what I did. I killed too many people for all the wrong reasons." He buried his head in his palm.

"I can't deal with the reminders of what I did. I saw that the school needed a new Slifer headmaster when I signed Asami up for the new year. I called Sheppard, told him about my old job, and since no one else applied, he gave it to me." Aaron explained.

Jaden nodded, a lot less confused now on why Aaron was here. He still didn't know what to say as they fell silent, Aaron still having his head buried and Jaden looking down to his bloody socks.

A minute of silence later, Aaron broke it. "He's gonna try and kill me."

Jaden nodded. "I know..." he heard Aaron groan, probably hoping to hear some miracle from him that Jason had forgiven Aaron for what he's done. Sad to say, Jason was still vengeful towards the man.

Jaden however knew that Jason was being unfair. They were his friends too and while he hated Aaron at first too for killing them, once he found out the truth, he let it go. Jason though... he just seemed to only want Aaron's blood on his hands, mostly for Tweener's death.

"I won't let him though..." Jaden said, getting Aaron to glance up. "I won't let him try anything. It's only because I don't want Jason to do something stupid and get arrested again for assault or murder. This time, he won't be let go."

Aaron nodded, seeing the logic in that. "Thanks..." he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He put a single cigarette in his mouth before he went to use the lighter. Only little sparks came out and not the flame he was looking for.

"Here..." Jaden reached into his own pocket and pulled out a lighter. He lit Aaron's cigarette for him as the elder man took a long drag. Once he puffed it out, he turned for an answer as to why he had a lighter. "It was Walter's..."

"Ohh..." Aaron didn't ask for anymore. He was as upset about their deaths as he and Jason were. He might've been the one to kill them, but a piece of himself died along with each life he took away. Especially since none of Jaden's friends really deserved to die.

They stayed silent again, the only sound being Aaron's breathing from his inhaling of the nicotine within the cigarette. There was also relieved sighs thrown in with each inhale, showing the man's desperate need for the common drug.

"I'm worried about him..." Aaron suddenly said as he took another smaller drag. Jaden knew who he was talking about. "After all that's happened, his mental stability worries me. I don't want my daughter's boyfriend to be a broken soul. I want him to be like how she told me he was..."

He turned to look to Jaden. "You too..." Jaden was confused. "Asami and Alexis told me and my wife a bunch of stories about you two. You sounded like an interesting kid. I am kinda curious as to who the real Jaden Yuki is."

Jaden didn't know how to answer that. Sure he would love for him and Jason to be how they were at the end of last year. They had no problems then and only great things to look forward to. Now? Jaden didn't care if tomorrow came for him and worried too much about if Jason would kill the next guy to look at him funny.

He shook his head to the man near him. "He died when he stabbed Jurou to death over and over and when he killed Peter after getting a confession."

Aaron remembered what he was talking about. After he, Jason, and Carlos escaped from Red Road, they were brought to his house where six men hired by Slade and Jagger were waiting for them. Just before any of them could make a move to assault Alexis and Asami, Jason bit down on the neck of Hayato and ripped it out. That gave Aaron the chance to get behind another named Haru and used him to shoot another named Kohaku before snapping Haru's neck. With three dead, Jaden stole a weapon and shot Peter in the leg as Jason used the chains for the door lock to jump on and snap the neck of the brother of Peter named Mitch. Jaden had then stabbed Jurou to death before forcing Peter to confess who sent them and why. Afterwards, Jaden killed him anyway.

It was a messed up day.

Aaron sighed. "We did bad stuff..." he took one last long drag before he dropped the cigarette to the ground and used his foot to put it out. "Even in Red Road, Jason talked a prisoner into going up the tunnel where we planned to escape. It was filled with a lot of dirt and we had no way of getting it out..."

Jaden was guessing what happened.

"So we sacrificed his life to drop the tunnel down. The only bright side is that he was a douchebag. Same as with the second guy during the escape..."

"Kenichi The Dictator..." Jaden nodded, remembering reading about it while he and Jason awaited the trial that gave them their freedom back.

Aaron nodded. "We're not gonna get things back to the way they used to be, are we?"

It was a reasonable question to ask. Jaden thought about it a lot too. He did wonder a lot about the impossibility of being normal again. Well... as normal as he ever was in his life with a spirit living inside him of his past life. But still, it was a question he didn't have an answer to. He wasn't even sure if there was one.

Jaden shrugged. "I don't know..."

Aaron nodded. "Yeah..." he twiddled his thumbs. "Still can't hurt to try, right?"

Jaden nodded. "I'm inclined to agree with you..." he answered. "Even if it seems impossible, if we don't try we'll never know."

Jaden wanted to move past everything and he knew that Aaron and Jason did too. He didn't want to be held down by the past few months and have to avoid living because of a very bad experience, although it was one of the worst anyone can have. That wasn't how he was. He made this declaration when Jason was comatose and there was no hope for him to wake up. He made a declaration to try and move on if things went south...

Although he retracted that entire speech when he realized he couldn't live without Jason in his life. He almost quit when Jason almost didn't wake up.

This time though? He would try and get some pieces of his old personality back. He didn't want to be a shell of a person. That wasn't a way to live, especially for him.

He had an enemy coming soon that would be his greatest challenge yet.

He needed to get better now...

Just as soon as he could sleep without seeing Walter, Shane, Eren, or Sawbuck in his nightmares.

Aaron gave a ghost of a smile. "Hopefully we can be who we were again... maybe Jason can even be that sweet guy Asami kept nagging me about again."

Jaden nodded. "I really hope so, Aaron... I really hope so..."

...

It was the first official day of Duel Academy and everyone was currently at the main duel arena. There were two people currently on the dueling platform now, shuffling each others' decks. One was Chazz and the other was an Obelisk.

"Look who it is!" The Obelisk said. "The guy who got booted from the blues! You're going down!"

"Look kid, you're an obnoxious little punk, and I can respect that just a little bit." Chazz smirked. "But no snot-nosed freshman can stand up to the Chazz!"

In the hallway, the Yukis, their girlfriends, and Syrus were all walking towards the arena. Chazz had gotten a message this morning stating that he was getting a chance to go back to Obelisk Blue. They agreed to meet him there as he left for the arena, not one to turn down a duel.

Now they were late due to Jaden not waking up on time, his late night talk with Aaron making him sleep in.

"We're gonna be late!" Syrus stated.

Alexis nodded. "Maybe we should run to get there in time. I don't wanna miss Chazz dueling."

Jaden shrugged. "Go ahead. We'll meet you there." The two did as they pleased and started jogging to the arena.

Jason didn't due to lack of enthusiasm and Asami didn't wanna leave his side. As for Jaden... he was staying behind Jason and watching him very carefully.

Yubel appeared beside him. 'You know he's gonna lose it when he sees Aaron.'

Jaden nodded. 'Exactly. That's why I'm staying right here where I can grab him quick.' He explained. 'This way, he can't hurt Aaron.'

And to give him more headaches, Haou decided to appear by Jaden too. His smirk still hasn't left his face after Jaden did an action worthy of Haou's name and executed Peter Kato even after he surrendered to them.

'I would think you would wanna kill the guy who murdered your friends.' He hummed. 'I guess you really didn't care about them at all.' He shook his head.

Yubel hissed. 'He loved those guys! Don't you accuse him of anything but. And you got no right to talk about anything Mr. I-Killed-My-Friends-For-Power!'

Jaden glowered. 'Walter was like a dad to me; Tweener and S-Circuit were like brothers; and Sawbuck became like an uncle to me and Jason. I love those guys and I was pissed at Aaron too. But killing him won't bring them back.'

'Jason seems to think so.'

'And I'll beat that out of his brain before he does something stupid.'

Haou smirked. 'Well you better do it quick...'

'Wha?'

Jaden looked to see Jason gaining ground towards the arena.

"Shit!" He cursed as he raced to catch up.

Syrus and Alexis made it to the arena first, seeing that it was full and Chazz already on stage.

"Attention!" They saw Bonaparte with a microphone and another man wearing a suit standing by him. Alexis and Syrus both gasped, turning very quickly to see just where Jaden, Jason, and Asami were. They weren't too far behind. "I'm sure you know moi!"

Syrus looked at Bonaparte."Who is that?"

"For those who don't know me, I'm your Vice-Chancellor Jean Louis Bonaparte!" He introduced as the other man took the mic from him.

"And my name is Aaron Elric; the new headmaster for Slifer Red." There were many murmurs that followed, many suspecting a possible relation to Asami Elric due to the last name. Aaron heard, but chose not to comment on it. He let his eyes go to where Alexis and Syrus were, able to give a half smile to them.

Jaden, Jason, and Asami finally made it to the arena. Jaden saw Aaron first, nodding and taking a stand behind Jason for when he finally saw Aaron. His hands were stiff and his body tense, ready to lunge at a moment's notice.

Asami saw him next, a shocked look staining her pretty face as she saw her father on the dueling stage. She could only mutter a single word as the worry for both Jason and her father failed to reach her in time to prevent the possible upcoming mess.

"Daddy?"

Once that word left her mouth, Jason finally seemed to notice who was on stage. His eye widened ever so slowly as he looked into Aaron's eyes, time slowing down and temporarily freezing once he did. His mouth was open agape while his hands slowly balled up into fists. He shut his mouth as slow and low growls escaped his lips, eye never leaving Aaron.

Aaron didn't know how to respond other than a nod. "Hey, Sweetie..." he responded to his daughter. He then looked to the boy that was no doubt running murder scenarios through his head. "How're you doing, Jason?"

Hearing his voice made him snap. Jason yelled as he made the movement to run towards Aaron. Quicker, Jaden wrapped his arms under Jason's armpits as he held him in a full nelson.

"Calm down, Jason." Jaden spoke in his ear as every eye was on them now. Jason thrashed in his brother's hold, still trying to get to Aaron. "You're gonna get in trouble."

"Jaden's right..." Alexis nodded. "This isn't worth it..."

Syrus agreed.

Asami shook off the shock she had that her dad was here to look to Jason. She didn't know who's side she was on regarding the problem between Jason and her father. On one hand, Jason was her boyfriend; her soulmate; her lover; and her best friend aside from Alexis all wrapped into one. She loved him and was sure they would get married someday and have kids and be a family.

But Aaron was still her father. He raised her; helped her as a child; helped make her; and molded her into the woman she was today. She could see why Jason was mad, but she also understood why her dad did what he did. He killed Jason's friends so she and their family would be safe. He didn't enjoy it and was broken over it. She even felt bad she called the cops on her father upon hearing what he planned to do to Jaden and Jason.

Seeing this made it really hard for her to pick a side against the two most important men in her life.

"Hurting Daddy will only hurt you more. Please calm down.." she cooed, hoping her voice would calm him down.

It only riled him up more.

"You little pissant!" Jason screamed to the man on top of his shit list. "What the fuck are you doing here!? You got some real balls to come here after you killed my friends and tried to kill me and my brother!" With Jaden holding onto him tightly, Jason was trying to use his mind to kill Aaron; squinting his eye and thinking real hard about the older man burning to death. Obviously, nothing happened. "Why are you here!?" He still attempted to break loose, but Jaden never wavered.

Which was good for Aaron since if Jason got his hands on him, it was gonna be bad.

It wasn't a secret that Aaron Elric was the killer of four of the eight members of the Domino Eight, so no student or facility was shocked to hear Jason say that. No one was even shocked to hear Jason call them his friends. You don't break someone out of prison if they weren't your friend.

What shocked them was seeing Jason Yuki, who used to be very shy and withdrawn, be so angry and murderous. Many students from last year even questioned if this was even Jason or his and Jaden's lost triplet.

Aaron took a deep breath, having planned for this after talking with Jaden last night. "I'm the new headmaster for Slifer Red." He swiftly ignored Bonaparte's scoff and focused instead on Jason's angered gaze.

He didn't let up from Jaden's hold on him. "Are you fuckin' serious!? You!? Replacing Banner!?" He sounded like he just heard both the greatest joke of all time and the worst news he could possibly hear. "Stop bullshitting me!"

"I'm not, Jason..." he answered honestly. "I wanna make things right between us. We'll be in laws someday and I don't want to have bad blood between us."

Asami blushed intensely at her dad's words while the crowd giggled or laughed. "Dad!" She whined.

"Sorry..." he apologized to his baby girl. He looked back to Jason, who finally lost the will to keep trying to escape as Jaden wasn't letting go anytime soon. "What can I do, Jason? What can I do to make you forgive me?"

In the most honest and non bullshit tone he could use, Jason responded with venom:

"Let me put a bullet in your heart; let me shoot you in the back; or let me throw you off a roof. Let me kill you like how you killed my friends."

Asami gasped. "Jason! That's still my dad!" Though she knew that Jason hated her dad, she didn't want to hear his death threats to him.

His next words stung her. "I know..." to hear her boyfriend, the boy she gave her virginity to say that hurt her very bad. It made her think that he didn't love her enough to let go of his death threats to her father. He didn't take into account how much this would hurt her if Jason killed her dad.

'He knows...' another voice said next to her. It was a stunning woman with blonde hair hidden under a red helmet with matching red armor. It was Queens Knight; Asami's duel spirit that Jaden brought to life for her shortly after he and Jason escaped prison.

Asami spared a glance to her spirit. 'I don't know if he does.' She looked back to her angered boyfriend. 'He's so angry that he doesn't see me that much anymore. He used to always make sure my feelings were okay. Now he doesn't care as much.' She wanted to cry.

Queens Knight shook her head. 'Look at him closely...' Asami listened and saw Jason's anger leveled down by a great deal. The knight smiled knowingly as Asami's eyes widened. 'He does care. He feels bad he said that. He does still care about your feelings. He loves you still.'

Asami nodded. Jason had stopped thrashing by this point. Jaden waited a second before he let Jason go. He didn't make a move towards Aaron, much to everyone's relief, but no more than the Elrics. Jason looked to Asami apologetically, although he wasn't expecting forgiveness for what he said. He did just act like a selfish prick.

Asami gave him a hug, which he almost didn't return. She would forgive him this time, but planned to talk to him real soon about his vendetta against her dad. She didn't want their relationship ruined because of this. She didn't wanna lose him just after getting him back.

'Wow.' Alexis and Syrus gasped, having been stunned quiet the entire conversation. They didn't see Jason being so cold about his hatred of Aaron in front of Asami like that. They both thought he would buckle down in front of her. He really must've hated Aaron then to not take his girlfriend's feelings into consideration.

Jaden frowned. He didn't like Aaron at first either, but he understood why he tried to kill him, Jason, and killed their friends. He did it for family. To save Jason, he would've killed them too; in a heartbeat, no matter how much he cared about Walt, Tweener, S-Circuit, and Sawbuck.

But Jason either didn't see that or didn't want to see that.

Aaron saw that response coming. "I can't let you kill me. I have a family to take care of."

Still hugging Asami, Jason glared at him while rubbing circles on her back. He mouthed the words he wanted to say to Aaron, not speaking them to avoid causing Asami more hurt; feeling very shitty for hurting her the way he did.

He mouthed, "Walter and Sawbuck had families too."

Aaron winced.

"All right, we wasted enough time on your personal drama." Bonaparte broke through. "We need to start the duel now..."

"I agree..." Aaron said. "It's not about us. It's about Chazz getting a chance to be promoted to Obelisk Blue..." he pointed to the former Obelisk, who watched the entire argument without a single comment. He had nothing to say when it came to Jason's anger to Aaron. He already tried saying something to Jason when he was locked up in Red Road and the guy chewed him out. He still loved Asami like a sister and didn't want her to be hurt by Jason's anger towards her father, though. Until Jason actually made an attempt on Aaron's life, this didn't count, Chazz would stay away from the fire.

Jaden and the others walked away from where they stood for the entire beef. Jason spared Aaron another glare before letting Asami lead him away. Aaron stared sadly back, but Jason didn't see it; although it wouldn't matter if he had.

"At least Chazz is getting the chance to get to be an Obelisk again..." Jaden said in an attempt to calm things down.

"Yeah, but I also would've guessed you and Jason would get the chance as well. Who let let Chazz have a chance?" Syrus asked.

"Me!"

The three Slifer boys and two Obelisk girls saw the Headmaster of Obelisk come up to them.

"Dr. Crowler!"

"It's Chancellor Crowler, now!" He corrected Syrus. "There's a reason I chose Chazz, quite a brilliant one in fact!"

"Somehow I doubt that..." Alexis muttered.

"What was that?" Crowler glared. "Do you slackers have any idea who joined this year's freshman class? The dueling league all-star Aster Phoenix!"

"He enrolled here?" Alexis gasped.

"As a student?" Syrus added.

"Well I'll be..." Jaden was interested.

Jason had no comment.

"But where is he?" Asami looked around in the audience. She couldn't see the pro anywhere.

"That's just it!" Crowler chewed at his handkerchief. "For some reason he never showed up!" He then stopped his freak out. "So instead, I decided to make some stars out of the students. And Chazz is the perfect candidate!" Crowler nodded. "Despite his brothers' actions, I just know people will be lining up to see if the third Princeton can clean the family name!"

"That's the most, selfish, egotistical thing I've ever heard!" Alexis shouted.

"Thank you!" The Chancellor grinned. He then hopped away, but not before actually looking to Yukis and saying, "I'm kinda relieved you two aren't dead."

Not sure if they heard right, Jaden and the others assumed Crowler didn't say that. "We should get a seat. The duel's about to start." Jaden suggested.

"But where?" Syrus looked around.

"Who cares?" Jason spat, still pissed that one of his most hated people of all time was here; and as his new headmaster no less.

"Hey guys!"

The five of them turned to see Bastion and Atticus sitting in the front row, waving them over.

"Looks we found our spot, let's go." Alexis said as she, Asami, and the Slifers went over there to sit.

Bastion looked at Jason once he sat. "That was quite a show..."

"Not now, Bastion..." he growled in response.

"I didn't expect Aaron to be here," Atticus added. "When we saw him, me and Bastion were sure we were hallucinating."

"I didn't even know and I'm his daughter." Asami said.

They were approached by two Obelisk girls the moment after Asami stopped talking. One was blond and had dark brown eyes while the other had brown hair in a ponytail and green eyes. What annoyed Asami was that the blonde was gazing dreamily at Jason, making her scouch closer to Jason.

Alexis almost laughed at her friend's actions. Syrus took one look at the brunette and turned as red as his blazer, thinking she was very pretty. Jaden blinked at the sight of them, but said nothing. Jason was still glaring at Aaron, who had taken a seat on the other side of the arena with Bastion shaking his head at Jason's actions.

Atticus grinned at the newcomers. "Hey there, Cuties!" He went into flirt mode. "The name's Atticus Rhodes!"

They ignored him as the blonde went to Jason and the brunette to Jaden, making Atticus face fault at being ignored. This time Alexis almost laughed at her brother's actions, but grew suspicious of the brown haired girl.

"Hi, Jason!" The blonde greeted to Jason.

"It's nice to meet you, Jaden." The brunette nodded to Jaden.

Jaden was confused while Jason took a break from his glaring of Aaron to look at the girl who very obviously had a thing for him. He didn't expect anyone to come up to him and Jason, especially after what they had done over the summer. He didn't know what to say.

Asami did. She had something to say alright. "And you are...?" She gave a very fake smile, showing her teeth and twitching just a little.

The blonde grinned. "I'm Misaki Haruno! A freshman!"

The brunette was more calm with her answer. "Hikaru Paul; also a freshman."

"Hello..." Jaden finally said something. Jason kept wondering why Misaki was staring at him. "What brings you here?"

Hikaru shrugged. "We're both fans of you two and wanted to see if we can sit with you."

"Fans?" This time Jason asked. Who the hell would be a fan of his? What did he do to get a fan?

"I saw Jaden duel on TV last year for the school duel," Hikaru explained. "I thought he was really good and I very much admired the comments he made to Chazz. I've wanted to duel him myself ever since."

Jaden nodded. "Well I'll duel you whenever." He said.

"Thank you," Hikaru smiled. "Can we sit with you guys?"

"I guess, yeah." Jaden shrugged.

Alexis still had her suspicions. Hikaru might've done a very good job at hiding it, but Alexis saw the blush on her face as she sat on Jaden's right. Narrowing her eyes, she held Jaden's hand, getting a look from him before he shrugged and squeezed back.

Misaki jumped into the other seat next to Jason and grinned dangerously close to his face. Asami was twitching very angrily while Jason blinked with a tiny blush on his face. "I admire you so much for being able to survive the summer events you went through! And hearing you were a duelist just skyrocketed my admiration for you!" She blushed. "Plus... I think you're really cute and brave for standing up to Mr. Elric." She shyly said.

Asami almost screamed. She only didn't mind another girl calling Jason cute if Alexis was the one saying it. And saying he was brave for yelling at her dad!? Huh!? Misaki was obviously trying something here and Asami didn't know what she was thinking, but she wouldn't let it work. Jason was her boyfriend and hers alone!

Jason nodded. "Thanks..." he figured he thank her for the compliment. It seemed like the right thing to do for his fan, however weird that sounded.

"I'm sorry about your friends." Misaki apologized. "They must've been good guys if you were friends with them."

'She is good...' Asami admitted, seeing her strike one of Jason's weak points. Still, it angered her to see one of Jason's insecurities struck and exploited like that.

Jason nodded, touched by her consents for his friends. "Thank you very much..."

Atticus had recovered from his fall, staring in childish jealousy at Jaden and Jason. "Lucky guys..." he pouted at Jaden and Jason getting two more girls to like them.

Bastion laughed.

Syrus was a little bit jealous too, but didn't say anything. He did however feel a little bit cheated that Jaden and Jason seemed to always get the girls. First Alexis and Asami fell in love with them and now these new girls had crushes on them? Couldn't a girl like him for once?

"Alright, it's time to see if Chazz goes back to the Blue Dorm!" Bonaparte said as the two boys returned their decks and walked back to their sides. "Now, his opponent... our top ranking freshman, Reginald Van Howell III!"

The crowd cheered again as the Obelisk raised his arm.

"Okay, you know the drill, no direct attacks below the belt! But trash talking's encouraged!" The small Vice-Chancellor stated as he left the dueling platform.

"Then, let me kick off the insults!" Reggie said. "You're a nasty, stuck-up rich kid! You're the lowlife brother to two criminals! And nobody here likes you!"

"Is he talking about us or the pricks?" Jaden asked.

"I think it goes both ways." Jason shrugged.

"I'm waiting for the insult..." Chazz replied. "Like I really give a flying hell about what you think of me or about those two assholes!"

"You won't be so calm when you lose this duel!"

Both players activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands.

"DUEL!"

Chazz: 8000

Reggie: 8000

"Me first!" Reggie drew his sixth card. "I start with my Marauding Captain!"

In a flash, a soldier with sandy blonde hair wearing silver armor and a cape. In his hands were two silver blades. (ATK: 1200/DEF: 400)

"And when this monster's summoned to the field, I can summon another monster up to Level 4 from my hand!" He pulled out another warrior monster. "Meet Warrior Lady of the Wasteland!"

A beautiful brunette woman wearing a brown hat and tattered cape over a green halter top, skirt and boots appeared, drawing her sword. (ATK: 1100/DEF: 1200)

Asami huffed. "He uses a Warrior deck too?"

"I bet you use yours better," Alexis said, getting a smile to appear on her friend's face.

She turned to see if Jason would agree or add something to Alexis' comment. Much to her sadness and annoyance, he was still glaring at her father from all the way across the arena.

She nudged him. "Jason?"

"Huh?" He broke off the glare he had on Aaron to stare at Asami.

"What's your opinion on Reggie's deck?"

Jason blinked. "We already know you're the best Warrior duelist. Why would we need to repeat it all the time?"

She was ecstatic to see Jason act a little like his old self. Everyone minus Misaki and Hikaru all blinked in shock at Jason's behavior, but they all smiled afterwards. It was a good sign that Jason could still be as sweet to Asami as he was before.

"Thank you!" She gave him a tight hug, one that he returned.

They were too caught up to see Misaki staring jealousy.

"Now, I hook up Marauding Captain with Jeweled Sword!"

A sword with a diamond hilt replaced one of the swords in the captain's hands. (ATK: 1200-1500)

"Then, I give my Warrior Lady a Divine Sword Phoenix Blade!"

Another sword with a golden hilt appeared in Warrior Lady's hands. (ATK: 1100-1400)

"Not bad!" Syrus said.

"This Reggie kid's making sure Chazz doesn't one up him." Jaden added.

"Chazz can take it..." Atticus said.

"I throw this facedown and call it a turn!" Reggie stated. "Now you're up! Rumor has it that you own the best deck money can buy! Let's see if you didn't waste it!"

"Whatever..." Chazz muttered.

"What's wrong? Afraid that being a Slifer so long has turned you into a slacker!" The Obelisk mocked. "That black coat doesn't mean anything, you're a red coat Chazzy!"

"Do you ever shut up! Goddamn!" The Black Coat Slifer growled as he drew his card. Was he like this before? If he was then wow! He was a dick! "Let's see if this helps... I summon X-Head Cannon!"

A blue machine with a spike ball lower region and two cannon barrels on its shoulders appeared. (ATK: 1800/DEF: 1500)

"Then, I'll add Graceful Charity to the mix! I draw three cards, and then get rid of two!" He drew three cards. "And one of the two cards I'll discard is Ojamagic!"

"Say what!" Reggie bugged out. "Ojamawho?!"

Chazz discarded and collected three cards from the deck. "Am I going to fast for you, Reggie? Let me dumb it down for you... Ojamagic! It adds Ojamas Yellow, Black and Green from my hand!"

"Where the Party at!" The three normal Ojamas shouted in spirit form.

"Can I attack first, boss?" Yellow asked floating up to his partner, who sighed at his overeagerness.

"I don't get it?" The Obelisk asked. "Why play those wimps!"

Chazz answered by turning over a spell card showing Ojama Yellow, Black and Green riding in machines.

"Ojama Ride!"

"I'm guessing you know what it's does right?" Chazz grinned. "I get to summon 3 Machine Union monsters in defense mode... after discarding these guys!"

"Say it ain't so!" The Ojamas cried.

"Sorry, guys, but I gotta do this!" Chazz discarded them as he collected three more cards from his deck.

"Who's the slacker now? I'll give you a hint: He's a prep school pipsqueak, and he's in way over his dorky head!"

"Is it you?!" Reggie pointed at him.

"No, it's you!" Chazz yelled back, but shrugged it off. "Anyway, I'll summon Y-Dragon Head, Z-Metal Tank and W-Wing Catapult!"

The first machine was a red metallic dragon. (ATK: 1500/DEF: 1600)

The second was a yellow tank that looked more like some kind of cruiser. (ATK: 1500/DEF: 1300)

The last was a blue jet platform appeared. (ATK: 1300/DEF: 1500)

"Now I combine X, Y and Z to form the XYZ Dragon Cannon!"

The new monsters flew up and began to lock on to one another, with X taking the top, Y in the middle and Z on the bottom. (ATK: 2800/DEF: 2600)

"This is bad!" Reggie shouted.

"You're actually right for a change!" Chazz said as he discarded Enchanting Fitting Room and Armed Dragon LV5 from his hand. "Now I activate it's effect! By discarding two of my cards, I can send your monsters packing!"

The machine loaded up its blaster and fired them at the two warriors, taking them down.

"Well thanks to Jeweled Sword being destroyed, I draw one card!" The Obelisk stated as he drew a card.

"Now, XYZ Dragon Cannon attack!"

Reggie braced himself as he took a shot from the cannon.

Chazz: 8000

Reggie: 5200

"Still think you have a shot, freshman!"

"You're gonna be sorry you did that to me!" Reggie demanded.

"This obnoxious rich kid isn't half bad!" Bonaparte smirked.

"You sound surprised..." Crowler remarked. "Remember, I chose him to lead our school to fame for a reason..."

"Fame?" Aaron asked from his spot next to the two Chancellors. "You're using Chazz to gain more publicity?"

"Genius, right?" Crowler grinned.

"It's stupid."

"Who asked you, Triggerfinger?!"

Aaron glowered upon hearing that. Crowler shrank back in his seat when he noticed the gun Aaron still had holstered on his side. Bonaparte could only smirk.

"I-I meant to say I respect your opinion, but I respectfully disagree." He stammered.

Aaron slowly nodded. "Uh-huh." He turned back to Chazz's duel, resisting the very strong urge to take more anti depressant pills after being reminded of what he had done. He settled for picking at his fingers instead.

Jaden whistled. "Chazz just keeps reminding me why I consider him a worthy rival."

"He's arguably the best out of us behind you and Jason." Atticus nodded. "He is the one that won that tournament this summer to give you guys the money."

"He definitely seems interesting." Hikaru studied him over.

Jason was thinking something else. Watching Chazz duel again was letting his brain remember old memoires. An idea came to him as he remembered something Chazz told him while he was moping around about the death of Tweener.

...

"Tweener's dead..."

Jason nodded his head very slowly as he heard his brother repeat what he had heard a few days back. They were currently in an old abandoned storage unit. The two of them, along with Carlos, Sawbuck, and S-Circuit, had just escaped the town of Watt Mills. The town was a few hours outside of Domino and they all agreed to travel there shortly after their escape to get the money of their friend Glenn Lee, who died on their escape from prison.

They all got there except for Walter, who was killed the day before Jaden and Jason got to the town.

And now Tweener was killed too.

"I know..." Jason choked out, tears falling down his face quickly. He and Tweener were caught up with by the cops when they went to get some gas for the car they stole during their journey to the town. Tweener knew they were gonna get caught, so he stayed behind to allow Jason to escape. Jason did, but had gotten separated from the gang because of it. He was the last one to arrive.

Jason fell to his knees, tears hitting the ground as he weeped like a baby. "He was my best friend." He spoke like a baby too.

"This is so fucked up!" It was Carlos who said it. "Both Walt and Tweener? Both gone?" He shook his head. "It's horrible."

Jaden nodded. "It is..."

Sawbuck turned to Jason. "He was a good kid."

"He was..." S-Circuit agreed.

Jason was quiet as they split the $2 million dollars they dug up amongst themselves and went their separate ways. Jaden and him traveled back to Domino after Carlos hot wired a car for them. They didn't have licences, but that was the very least of their worries.

They arrived and met up with Chazz and Syrus, who was giving them the run down on finding new evidence to set them free and to update them on Asami and Alexis' well beings.

They had taken refuge in an old apartment building that suffered a fire. Jaden was being updated by Syrus while Chazz decided to talk to Jason in one of the bedrooms where he was moping.

"I know he was your friend, and I'm sorry." Chazz had said as he took a seat next to Jason on the bed. Jason didn't talk. Chazz had talked for a little bit more, but Jason responded back after this. "I know it must hurt, but you need to focus on getting your freedom back."

"I'm gonna kill him..." Jason had said. "Tweener's killer. I'm gonna kill him."

"It's Asami's father."

"I know..."

They argued for a little bit and fell into silence afterwards. Chazz had sighed before he said this, "If you wanna take your mind off of everything, I wouldn't mind having a duel with you to distract your thoughts."

Jason appreciated it and accepted it. Before he could ask something else, Jaden had run in saying that Aaron caught up with S-Circuit.

And Jason took off to try and save his friend.

...

'I failed to save him.' He thought before he very difficultly shook the thought from his mind of watching S-Circuit plummet to his death. He was thinking about taking Chazz up on his offer after this. He would love to duel him again.

Plus, he needed the distraction before he actually lost control and tried to kill Aaron.

"Let me show you how it's done!" Reggie said as he drew. "I play Pot of Greed to draw two cards!" He drew two more cards, having five. "And now I play my Book of Moon spell card!"

"Book of Moon?"

"Yes, Book of Moon! What're you deaf too?" Chazz's Dragon Cannon was flipped facedown. "And now I summon Mystic Swordsman LV 4!"

A swordsman appeared wearing a white and purple cloak. He wielded a double bladed sword. (ATK: 1900/DEF: 1600)

"You got me shaking in my boots." Chazz deadpanned.

"You should be scared, especially since I play Double Attack and discard Combo Master to allow him to attack twice this turn!" Reggie pointed forward. "Destroy his Catapult!" His swordsman destroyed the blue jet. "And now his Dragon Cannon!"

"And you call me the slacker?" Chazz smirked. "He's still not powerful enough."

Asami knew what was going on. "Chazz! His special ability!"

"Huh?"

"The lady is right. My swordsman automatically destroys a monster facedown." Chazz gasped as his Dragon Cannon was destroyed without even flipping up.

"He lost a major monster," Alexis said. "And the sad part is he can't bring it back."

"Is he done?" Misaki asked.

"Hell no!" Atticus shook his head. "Chazz has a lot more strategies in that deck of his. He'll figure something out."

"I dueled against and alongside him," Jason added, finally giving up on glaring at Aaron. "He's one of the best I know. He won't lose to a snob."

Misaki grinned. "If you believe in him, then I'll listen to you!"

Asami glared at her.

"I draw!" Chazz drew, having three. "I activate Level Modulation! You draw two cards, but my Armed Dragon LV5 comes back!"

Reggie drew as a large red metallic dragon appeared on the field. (ATK: 2400/DEF: 1700)

"He may not be able to attack, but I'm cool with that..." he smirked. "Since I sacrifice him to summon another LV5 Dragon."

"You really are brain dead." Reggie said as another dragon took the place of the first one. "What was the point of that?"

"The point was that I can now rough you up! Armed Dragon LV5, attack with Inferno Roar!" His dragon roared before it destroyed the Swordsman.

Chazz: 8000

Reggie: 4700

"And you're the top freshman?" Chazz scoffed. "Now that my dragon destroyed your monster, he can upgrade to the next level! Armed Dragon LV 7!"

The dragon evolved into its much larger form, more menacing and frightening than before. (ATK: 2800/DEF: 1000)

Reggie growled, drawing again and having six in his hand. "I'm gonna make you regret doing that! First thing I'll do is summon out another Marauding Captain!"

A second copy of the captain from earlier appeared. (ATK: 1200/DEF: 400)

"And his ability let's me bring out Command Knight!" A female warrior in red armor appeared. (ATK: 1200/DEF: 1900)

"Yawn." Chazz muttered.

"Yeah, Asami uses Warriors better." Jaden said.

"Seeing her use them just lessens expectations when others use Warriors." Alexis added.

Asami blushed from the praise. "Thanks, but Chazz isn't clear yet."

"And she gives all warrior monsters 400 ATK points and she's immune to battle if another monsters out."

Command Knight covered all the warriors in a red aura. (ATK:1200-1600)×2

"Again... yawn..."

Reggie smirked. "You really should watch your tone, especially when I play Shrink to cut your dragon's strength in half!"

Chazz was wide eyed as his dragon got surrounded in a purple aura, getting smaller every second it stayed affected. (ATK: 2800-1400)

"And with another Jeweled Sword, I can make Command Knight stronger!" A second copy of the sword from before appeared in her hand. (ATK: 1600-1900)

"Captain, take out the Armed Dragon!" The blonde hair captain charged in and sliced down on the dragon, destroying it.

Chazz: 7800

Reggie: 4700

"Now Command Knight, attack him!"

The female warrior charged in and sliced down on Chazz's disk that he used to try and protect himself.

Chazz: 5900

Reggie: 4700

"He got nailed..." Hikaru muttered.

"I concur..." Bastion agreed.

"What else does he have to fight those warriors?" Misaki wondered.

"You're up again!" Reggie declared. "And don't disappoint yourself!"

Chazz chuckled. "Don't write your victory speech just yet, little Reggie! I'm just getting started! He drew. "I play Pot of Greed to draw two more times!" He did, having three. "I summon Ojama Blue!"

A blue colored monster with a very slim body wearing bikini briefs appeared. Its flat face carried a neutral expression. (ATK: 0/DEF: 1000)

"And I'm playing defense... just like always." He replied.

"And a facedown will do for me." Chazz concluded.

"More lame Ojamas, huh?" Chazz didn't respond. "Whatever." He drew, having three. "I summon out my Mataza the Zapper!" A green armored warrior with a curved knife appeared on the field. (ATK: 1300-1700/DEF: 800)

"It's still so weird seeing my monsters on the other side." Asami acknowledged.

Jason shrugged. "Maybe..." he turned to Asami. "But always remember that you're better than that Reggie guy."

Asami smiled. "What's with all these compliments so suddenly?"

Jason blinked. "I can't tell my girlfriend that she's awesome?" He sounded really confused, like if he missed something big.

"No, you could... It's just... you've been very rare with the compliments lately." Asami brushed a strand of hair behind her right ear. "I remember you giving me one all the time. Now I'm lucky to get one."

Jason sighed. "I've had a lot on my mind lately..." he said as he held the gold chain around his neck.

Asami wanted to crawl in a hole right now. She was making him feel bad about mourning his friends! She understood Jason being a little more withdrawn, but she missed his old self a lot. She just wanted to know the old him was still there.

"I am so sorry," she was quick to apologize for her rudeness. "I want you to know I'll NEVER make you feel bad for mourning your friends. I didn't mean to sound selfish."

Jason shrugged. "It's alright." He kissed her forehead, making her relax and snuggle into him. For the moment, they looked like they did before Jason's life changed forever.

Misaki watched with very clear disdain. 'The competition is big!' She was shocked, but also not really shocked, when she saw Jason and Asami act all lovey dovey. Jason was so cool that any girl would be lucky to have him. She was hoping Jason was single so she can have an easier time getting him for herself. It was fine. She appreciated a good challenge.

Alexis turned to Jaden, "It's nice that Jason can still love Asami like he did before..."

Jaden frowned. "Of course. He's darker, not heartless." He sounded a lot rougher than needed.

Alexis frowned too. "Okay, you don't need to get all rough with me." She defended herself. "I'm just saying that it's good since that means there's hope Jason can heal."

Jaden sighed. "I know and I'm sorry." He apologized. "I'm just on fuckin' edge right now. I didn't mean to act like a dick."

"Good," Alexis smirked. "Because you acting like a dick isn't why I fell in love with you to begin with." He cracked a tiny smile. "I meant to ask you this before we came here."

Jaden gave her his attention, ready to answer what she asked him.

"Why don't you smile anymore?"

Okay, that was hard.

There was a lot of reasons for that. For one, he lied to the entire justice system that he didn't kill his parents or any one else other than the assailants. This made him a little jumpy that someday they may find out he's lying and put him back in jail. That was something he didn't want.

Secondly, four of his friends are dead. Anyone with a heart would be upset that friends of theirs are dead. They haven't even been dead a month yet. He could still very easily remember that day after they escaped from prison, eating fast food that Tweener, Carlos, and him stole and laughing like idiots. The seven of them, Banger was abandoned first chance they got, actually had fun. He grew sadder every time he replayed that memory.

Thirdly, Jason's mental state was worrying him. Seeing his brother get darker and colder right in front of him scared the hell out of him. It was also worse that they had fought before Jason got caught again and he didn't get a chance to see him until after he escaped from Red Road. Jason was tethering off the edge when he was jailed and was way gone when he saw him again.

Lastly, he just couldn't smile after the way he killed Alexis' attempted attackers. He stabbed one to death repeatedly over and over again before he forced a confession from another about who sent them to attack his girlfriend and friends, why they sent them, and what they tried to do. Jaden got him to squeal...

And then shot him anyway.

He couldn't just be the same idiot again after he killed people like that.

He sighed. "I've just been preoccupied lately with a lot of things..." he turned to see her nod her head at him. "I just haven't really had a reason to smile after I got my freedom back."

"You were so happy that day..."

He nodded. "We all were..." he gave her what she wanted. "I promise I'll try to smile more if you want me to."

Alexis smiled back, leaning in and kissing him. Jaden enjoyed it, but didn't put a lot of energy into kissing her back. She noticed this. She gave him a questioning gaze, but he shook his head before turning back to the duel.

'He's really broken...' the Obelisk Queen thought.

Hikaru also watched Jaden's face and was questioning how can she help her idol. She guessed he would be a little bit withdrawn due to his recent events, but this much? It was messed up. She wanted to help.

Syrus was watching this very closely. He was just reminded why he couldn't tell Jaden about Jason's impending death. Jaden was on edge and the slightest nudge could make him tip over. It was exceptionally bad due to something Jaden shared with him when Syrus very vaguely asked what he would do if something happened to Jason.

'I would kill myself, Syrus. If Jason were to die, I wouldn't have a reason to live. I love Alexis, but losing my baby brother would be it for me.'

Telling him the bad news after hearing that? He might as well kill Jaden himself if he was planning to do so.

Syrus begged for something to work out. Anything to make things easier for his friends.

Back to the duel, it was still Reggie's turn. "First I'll have my Captain attack your Blue Freak!"

The captain made a run for the Ojama.

"Ahhh!" Ojama Blue screamed as he got cut down to size.

"I activate Ojama Blue's effect, letting me take any two Ojama cards from my deck!" Chazz took two cards from his deck. "I pick Ojamadala and Ojama Delta Hurricane!"

"More lame Ojama cards? Command Knight, show him how a real monster attacks!"

The female warrior moved in and took a swing at Chazz.

Chazz: 4000

Reggie: 4700

Chazz pressed a button on his disk. "I activate my trap card, Flashbang!" A trap depicting a black hole with lightning shooting out flipped up. "Since you just did direct damage, your turn automatically ends!"

Reggie growled. "Just go!"

"I'll be glad to," he drew, having four. "Now I play Ojamadala!"

"Don't even tell me..."

"I pay 1000 life points to bring back Ojama Yellow, Black and Green to the field! Say hi Reggie boy!"

Chazz: 3000

Reggie: 4700

"It's good to be back folks!" The brothers cheered as they sat on the field. (ATK: 0/DEF: 1000)x3

"These three misfits may not look like much... but they're about to take you down!"

"With what!" Reggie demanded.

"Relax, you'll see..." Chazz smirked, making the freshman growl again.

"You're bluffing!"

"Let's see what my card says... Ojama Delta Hurricane! When each of these goofballs is on the field, I can destroy every card on your field!"

"No!"

The spell appeared behind the brothers.

"Rough 'em him up boys!"

"Sure boss!" They said as the leapt into action.

"Let's shake..." Yellow started.

"...rattle..." Black followed.

"...and roll!" Green added.

"OJAMA STYLE!" They finished as they combine their bikini clad rears and then started to spin rapidly in a triple colored hurricane as they surrounded Reggie's warriors and within seconds, a loud boom was heard, and the three monsters had vanished into a thick cloud of smoke.

"Now what do you have to say about that?" Chazz smirked.

"You're gonna be sorry for that!" Reggie glared. "But since you destroyed my Jewel Sword, I get to draw a card." He did so, bringing his hand to three.

Chazz smirked. "Running scared? You should be, especially when I play Monster Reborn to bring back Armed Dragon LV5!"

His red dragon reappeared. (ATK: 2400/DEF: 1700)

"Attack Reggie directly!"

Armed Dragon let loose spinning red blades that made a collision course towards Reggie, hitting him and making him skid back.

Chazz: 3000

Reggie: 2300

"And my last card facedown will do." He concluded.

"Chazz is really sticking it to Reggie," Aaron nodded. "Despite being in Slifer, he's holding his own and winning against an Obelisk."

"He'll make this school famous!" Crowler grinned.

"Who knows, maybe this will erase some of the infamy that the school has now because of the Yukis." Bonaparte said.

"Wanna run that by me again?" Aaron dared.

"Those two being here will only make this school known as the school that houses what's left of The Domino Eight."

Crowler very easily guessed where this was gonna go. "No need to fight, gentlemen."

They both ignored him.

"They were framed. There's nothing to hold against them." Aaron defended them, regardless of what Jason tried to do to him.

"How about you?" Bonaparte countered. "You murdered those men." Aaron glowered. "Instead of being in jail, you're here; with a job you only have because no one else applied for it."

Aaron kept up the glare, regardless of how bad he felt upon being reminded of what he had done. "Asshole... you're lucky I'm not looking for a fight or else you'll be on the ground with no teeth."

Bonaparte glared in return.

"Looks like Chazz has this won," Jaden observed. "He just needs to attack directly one more time and the duel's his."

"Don't count this as won just yet..." Atticus warned. He pointed out Reggie's face. "He isn't done yet..."

"That's it, those freaks made a fool out of me for the last time!" Reggie stated.

"You're right, you can very easily do it yourself!" The black coat Slifer.

"Please, you're a second rate duelist with a third rate duelist deck!" He drew. "First I'll play Card of Demise!" He drew until he had five. "Then I'll play Double Summon to let me summon twice this turn! Next I'll summon out my second Warrior Lady of the Wasteland!"

A second female warrior appeared. (ATK: 1100/DEF: 1200)

"Then I'll hook her up with a Grade Sword!" A silver sword appeared in her hand. (ATK: 1100-1400)

Asami gasped. "Chazz, he's about to summon something big!"

"And with this sword, she counts as two tributes instead of one!" Chazz gasped. "Now I'll sacrifice her to summon a new monster!"

Warrior Lady was surrounded by a red aura.

"Now meet Gilford the Legend!"

Appearing now was a masked, red-headed swordsman decked out in silver armor, red cape and three swords, one of which he held. (ATK: 2600/DEF:2000)

"Since Gilford was normal summoned, I get access to every Equip Spell card in my graveyard!"

Chazz gasped.

"First, Divine Sword-Phoenix Blade!"

The phoenix blade appeared. (ATK: 2600-2900)

"Then a Jeweled Sword!"

The diamond sword modeled onto Gilford's blade. (ATK: 2900-3200)

"And finally a Grade Sword!"

The silver sword was last. (ATK: 3200-3500)

"Then I'll play Lightning Blade to make Gilford even stronger!" He inserted his final card, which made the large sword even larger and a sickly red color. (ATK: 3500-4300)

"That sword needs its own zip code!" Syrus exclaimed.

"Check out Chazz!" Jaden pointed to his foster sibling. "He's bugging out."

True to Jaden's word, Chazz was standing with his mouth agape at the giant sword.

"Time to slay that dragon! Gilford, attack the slacker's Armed Dragon!"

"Hit the deck!" Ojama Yellow exclaimed as he and his brothers all jumped for it.

The warrior brought his giant sword down on the dragon, destroying it following a giant explosion.

Chazz: 1100

Reggie: 2300

"Your turn!"

Chazz glared. "I'll make sure it counts." He drew his lone card. "I reveal my facedown Terraforming, which let's me add a field spell to my hand!"

"Lemme guess, that's another lame Ojama card!"

"What makes you say that?" Chazz inquired as he took his card.

"Maybe because you built the majority of your deck around those Ojama freaks! With cards like them, I see why you belong in Slifer!"

Chazz smirked. "You know, I used to be like you, Reggie. An elitist snob who looked down on everyone around me." He then sighed. "But then I found people that were willing to take me in and make me feel better and important."

"I owe them everything for changing me, as well as these so called freaks!" He pointed to his trademark trio. "And to hear you call them freaks really rubs me wrong!"

His friends all stared down at him with a smile. The beginning of last year, they never would've guessed how important Chazz would become to them or how important they would be to him. Seeing him change for the better and to see him appreciate it gave all a warm feeling, even the now dark Jaden and Jason.

The Ojamas started crying tears of joy.

"I think I'm tearing up..." Black said.

"He likes us, he really likes us!" Green added.

"Oh happy day!" Yellow rejoiced.

"And now it's time I end this duel!" Chazz opened his field spell slot on his disk and placed a card inside. "I activate the Ojama Country Field Spell!"

The arena was now transported to a small village. The houses were shaped like Ojama Yellow's head, among a hill. It was also tiny.

"Now when I have an Ojama out, all monsters ATK and DEF points swap!" Reggie gasped as the stats of all four monsters switched. (ATK: 0-1000/DEF: 1000-0)×3 (ATK: 4300-3700/DEF: 2000-2600)

"So what? Your monsters still don't come close!"

"Let me increase my options with my Card of Demise!" He drew the full five. "Perfect. I play Polymerization to merge the three Ojamas to form Ojama King!"

The three Ojamas grabbed hold of one another and flew into the air, spinning faster and faster until finally, all three of disappeared and in their place, the very large, and overweight royal Ojama appeared on Chazz's field, his cape fluttering behind him while his bikini briefs stuck to both forehead and lower areas.

"Bow down to the king!" He praised as he held up two peace signs. (ATK: 0-3000/DEF: 3000-0)

Reggie frowned. "What're you planning to do?"

"This." Chazz revealed another spell. "I play the spell card Tri-Wight to revive the three Ojamas!"

The original three Ojamas reappeared on the field. (ATK: 0-1000/DEF: 1000-0)×3

"You're only bringing more garbage onto the field!"

Chazz smirked. "Let me finally end this with the Big March of Animals!" He inserted one more spell that had a bunch of animals together. "It lets all Beast Type monsters gain 200 ATK for every beast type monster I have on the field!

"With four, that's 800 each!" Syrus gasped.

"Which also means-"

"Chazz won!" Asami finished for Alexis, a giant grin plastered on her face. "Good job, Chazzy!"

Chazz blushed at the compliment as his four monsters gained strength. (ATK: 3000-3800) (ATK: 1000-1800)×3

"That means..." Reggie muttered in shock.

"You lose!" Chazz smirked. "Welcome to Duel Academy... freshman!"

"Belly flop!" Ojama King jumped high into the air and flew over the warrior. Then, he fell from the sky like a rock and landed on top of the warrior.

Chazz: 1100

Reggie: 2200

"Boys..."

"On it, boss!" The three brothers all charged in and headbutted the Obelisk together.

Chazz: 1100 (Winner)

Reggie: 0

"Looks like slumming it with the Slifer's hasn't hurt my game!" He said as the holograms disappeared. "Maybe next time, you'd stop judging people by their rank." Chazz stated. "Because an Obelisk Blue, who's supposed to be the best of the best, just got schooled by a Slifer Red!"

The Slifers were staring at him at awe, including the audience.

"I only dueled because I don't turn one down. I don't care about moving back up as an Obelisk! I like myself the way I am right now as a Slifer! Maybe the old me would wanna go back, but not the new Chazz!"

"Face it, no matter what color we wear, you'll always be the same punk! And I'll always be the Chazz!"

"CHAZZ IT UP! CHAZZ IT UP! CHAZZ IT UP! CHAZZ IT UP!" The crowd cheered. Chazz's friends were the loudest though, minus Jaden and Jason; both just clapping for his victory. Misaki was a little confused before she joined in while Hikaru tried to process the weirdness she was seeing. Aaron was sorta amused at the cheer while Bonaparte was covering his ears as Crowler joined in the cheer.

"The Chazz has spoken!"

Jaden and Jason walked over to the arena, stopping just in front of him.

"Good victory," Jaden congratulated.

"I'm actually a little surprised you turned down the promotion." Jason added.

"Obelisk Blue is where I was when I was an asshole to you two and everyone else." He explained. "Going back will only remind me about all that. I like the way I am right now, which is with you two."

Despite their recent dark behavior, the Yuki twins were touched.

Chazz then smirked. "Besides, I need to stay close to you two so you don't lose your cools again."

"Oh ha ha..." they both deadpanned.

Soon, the entire Slifer student body gathered around Chazz in a mosh pit and threw him in the air. He demanded for it to stop though. It was then Crowler picked up a microphone and spoke up.

"There seems to be a change of plans!" He announced. "Chazz Princeton shall remain in Slifer Red!"

"Put me down!" Chazz screamed.

"No need to thank me Chazz, I'm just doing my job." Crowler nodded.

"At this rate, it won't be for very longer..." Bonaparte grumbled.

Aaron spared the short man a glare.

...

Later that afternoon, Syrus was walking by a room until he heard someone talking behind it.

"Now we need to make a new story for the press!" It was Crowler's voice.

"Forget about the press!" Another voice spoke, which was Bonaparte's. "If you want the school to rise, we need to cut the Slifers from the island!"

"You were serious?!" Crowler asked.

"I don't kid, Crowler! It's high time to bid the Slifers adieu!"

"Tear down the Slifer Dorm!" Syrus freaked out before sprinting for his dorm.

...

"What?!" Jaden shouted, as his roommate got finished telling him what he heard the Chancellors talk about. He was not happy with what he just heard.

Neither was Jason, who looked as angry as he did when he saw Aaron today. "Tear down the Slifer Dorm?!"

"It's true!" Syrus replied. "I thought with Aaron here, then maybe they wouldn't try anything like that! Guess I was wrong!"

"You gotta be shitting me!" Jaden fumed. "We better tell Aaron about this."

"As much as I hate him, his new position just may help us." Jason begrudgingly admitted. "Guess it's a good thing I didn't kill him today."

Suddenly, the whole room started shaking.

"It's happening now?!" Jaden freaked.

"I can't believe they're doing this!" Syrus added.

"Get the hell out!" Jason screamed as the three Slifers left the dorm.

But once they ran outside safely to the ground, all they saw was a construction crew that was adding on to the dorm.

"What's going on?" Jaden asked.

"I'll tell you..." Chazz came up to them. "I decided to give the Slifer dorm a touch up." He explained. "I figured we can use the little treat after all that's happened to us."

"Well you gave us a goddamn heart attack!" Jason screamed.

"I guess you were wrong, Sy..." Jaden said.

"Yeah, sorry for scaring you guys..." Syrus apologized.

"Yeah... maybe I should've let you know that I was gonna do this." Chazz admitted with a small triumphant smirk on his face. He was always happy to get one over Jaden or Jason. It was a nice dose of humor that they desperately needed these days.

Jaden frowned. "Dick..."

Jason would've frowned too, but he was currently preparing the words needed to ask Chazz what he wanted to ask before.

Aaron came walking up to Chazz. "I gotta say, this is a good idea. Compared to the other dorms, the Slifer one needs some kind of pizazz as well."

Jason gritted his teeth, promising himself not to attack Aaron for Asami's sake. Still, looking the man who killed his best friend in the face and not doing anything was really hard.

Chazz blinked. "Hearing that come from you just sounds weird."

Aaron gave a light chuckle. "Yeah, I heard it too..." he locked eyes with Jason, the boy getting angrier and the older man getting saddened.

Jason held it in as he looked to Chazz. "Hey Chazz..." the black coat Slifer looked to him. "I wanna make a request."

Surprised at Jason's words, Chazz nodded as he began wondering what request Jason would ask him. "What request?"

Jaden, Syrus, and Aaron were all thinking the same thing.

Jason sighed before he said his request. "I wanna duel you, right now."

End of Chapter 2 of Gentle Darkness vs. Light of Destruction

Yep, Jason wants to have a rematch with Chazz. This is his way to clear his mind and calm himself down so he doesn't do anything stupid that can get him in trouble when it comes to Aaron. We will get another rematch next time as well, so keep an eye out for that.

And yes, Carlos is still alive and free. Glad someone got a happy ending, right? :)

And Gerard helped free them!? How's that for a plot twist!?

I'm sure some of you are no doubt asking why did I make Jason so dark and I just know some are thinking that he isn't even Jason Yuki anymore and is now just some angry punk who can't let a grudge go. I made Jason dark because it was my plan from the beginning. I wanted him to be dark because I felt I could take his character places I can't with others and show just how much all the stress and danger changes people. Not everyone changes for the better after a crazy adventure, believe it or not.

The reason why Jason is so dark is as follows and it makes sense as to why:

1) He was arrested for something he didn't do and went through hell while in jail.

2) He was on the run and hunted down by Aaron, who was on orders to kill him, Jaden, and his prison friends.

3) Four of his friends, one of which became his best friend/brother, were killed by his girlfriend's/lover's father. That by itself is fucked up.

4) Was arrested again after killing a psychopath and was forced to turn into a monster to survive on the inside so he can escape yet again.

5) He's killed people. I think this one by itself is reason enough why he should be dark. Many other fanfics, not just from this archive, have characters kill and they either shrug it off or it slowly becomes forgotten and it's like it didn't happen at all. Not me and not my story. Jason's done some pretty horrible and nasty shit. Like Jaden and Aaron said, Jason bit a man's neck out with his bare teeth and sent two men up to their deaths to save his own ass. He's not just gonna be all hunky dory or nonchalant about it like nothing happened. That's a very unrealistic way to think and go about it.

So if you're a fan of Season 1 Jason, I'm very sorry to say he's most likely not coming back. Jason's done and seen too much to simply go back to his shy self. He will hopefully get better so he's not a time bomb waiting to go off, but he will remain dark.

Next Time: Chapter 3


	3. Jason vs Chazz! Transformation Summon!

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Only own the OCs**.**

**AN: Still updating this since I get angry now when I look at my files on The Domino Eight. It sucks because I was happily working on it and then BAM! Chapter 5, which had over 11,000 words finished, gone! It's a horrible feeling.**

**So I'm gonna stick with this until Jaden's rematch with Aster. I think I'll cool off by then to rewrite the 11,000 words I lost. Gives me time to plan out more friendship scenes between Jaden and Walter and Jason and Tweener. Now that you guys know they die, I'm planning to make it as sad as possible.**

**Thank you for all the kind words for the last chapter. You guys definitely make this worth doing.**

**And in some response to Guest Reviews:**

**Guest- Aaron's known as a respected police officer. He's not a killer of innocent people. The kills he has on his hands are, known to the public, criminals that escaped from prison. One a murderer that's part of a dangerous gang; one a mentally unstable murderer; and two thieves. No one is particularly sad that they're dead other than Jaden, Jason, and Aaron himself. Also, its known that he was forced to do it to protect his family. So the parents wouldn't really think twice about it.**

**Dave- I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know your account name, so I can't know if you sent me a message or not. So don't accuse me of ignoring your messages when I don't know who you are.**

**Jason's rematch with Chazz is here! You guys wanted it since Season 1 and you finally got it! Hope you let me know if you liked it!**

**Enjoy**

Chapter 3-

"You wanna duel?"

Jason nodded in response to Chazz's question. "Yeah, I wanna duel you..."

Jaden and Syrus were both as shocked and confused as Chazz was. They stood there with Aaron looking back and forth between the younger Yuki twin and the last Princeton. Neither one of them was expecting Jason to make that kind of request, not with his recent attitude.

Chazz blinked his eyes to break himself out of his stupor. "Right now?" Jason nodded. "I've been wanting a rematch since we last dueled, but why all of a sudden?"

Jason then sighed. "Remember you told me a few weeks ago that you would duel me if I ever needed to take my mind off of my problems?"

Chazz nodded as he, Jaden and Syrus remembered that day.

"I wanna clear my mind," he explained. "And seeing you duel today gave me the inspiration needed for me to ask you."

Chazz and the others all knew why he wanted to clear his mind. The tall dark blonde hair man with them was indirectly making Jason's patience thin and his anger rise. At least he was being considerate now of hurting him instead of planning murder scenarios.

Chazz nodded a second later. "That's cool with me..." he then added. "But let's call up the girls and wait for them." He chuckled. "We all know they'll kill us if we duel without giving them a choice to watch it."

Jason cracked a very small smile at that. Aaron was astonished. It was the first time he's seen Jason smile in a non murderous way.

"Very true..." he nodded. "Fine with me. Gives me a chance to make some additions to my deck." He looked to his brother. "This is where I need your help, Jaden."

"Me?" He pointed to himself.

Jason nodded. "Just follow me..." Jaden, still confused, shrugged and followed after Jason. They climbed the stairs and then entered in Jaden's room, shutting the door behind him.

"Wonder what Jason needs help with?" Syrus asked as he looked up at the door. "He's as good as Jaden. I don't see what he needs help with."

"Isn't it obvious, Syrus?" Chazz asked. The short Slifer was just more confused about what was going on. Chazz sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "What card did Jason use to beat Alex yesterday?"

Now he got it! His eyes widened. "Masked Heroes!"

"Masked Heroes?" Aaron asked.

"Yeah, its Jason's new deck addition." Syrus explained.

"Asami told me he uses cards that he designed himself called the Coopers." Aaron said, still confused.

"He does, but these are new cards he was given."

"Who gave them to him?"

Syrus wasn't thinking too much when he answered the question. Chazz quickly realized what he was about to say and tried to stop him. But by the time Chazz opened his mouth, Syrus already spilled the beans.

"His friend Shane..."

Aaron choked on his breath as he heard the name of his youngest killed victim. He held a hand to his chest as he staggered where he stood, his knees weak. Chazz wrapped his arms around his waist to keep him afloat.

Syrus realized what he just did. He immediately regretted it. "Oh... sorry, Aaron..."

Aaron shook his head as Chazz helped him over to a nearby rock. He sat down. "Its okay, Syrus..." he thought about the final moments of Shane Nelson's life as his hands started shaking.

His frightened face; his shaking body; and his pleading voice all replayed themselves in his head before three gunshots rang out.

And then he only saw a pale face; a limp body; and only heard dead silence.

Chazz was astonished. "You really feel bad." It wasn't a question.

Aaron nodded. "I'll be feeling bad for it for the rest of my life." He said. He would be carrying the blood of innocent men on his hands for the rest of his life. But, he wouldn't change what he did. No matter how bad he felt or how many nightmares he would have until his death, Aaron didn't regret killing Tweener and the others. Doing so kept his family alive and safe, and that's what was important to him.

He's still got the cold sweats running down his face though.

Chazz glanced over to the guilty Syrus. "Let's call up the girls. I'll call Asami and you call Alexis." He looked back to Aaron. "We'll give you a minute."

Aaron nodded appreciatively. It usually took him awhile before he was able to block off the images of his killed victims from his mind...

"Come on, Syrus."

Or at least it used to until he started using the pills. Once Chazz and Syrus turned around to call Alexis and Asami, Aaron quickly took out his ball point pen from his coat pocket and twisted the lid off. Two little blue pills fell out and landed in his open palm. He swiftly put them in his mouth and swallowed them.

He hid his pen as he gave a short nod to Chazz and Syrus when they looked back to him to give the illusion he was fine. Two minutes later, the pills started to clear his mind as Tweener's face faded from his mind.

Along with his guilt.

...

"What'd you need my help with?" Jaden asked as he and Jason entered the room. Jaden closed the door as Jason took a seat on the chair by the desk where Jaden sat last night. His younger brother sighed before he looked back up to Jaden.

"I need extra copies of the Elemental Hero cards..."

Jaden blinked in more confusion than he did in shock. "Huh?" He asked. "Why?" Jason only stared at him before Jaden seemed to catch on. "Oh... Tweener's cards..."

"Yep..." he nodded. "I'm gonna use them against Chazz."

"What about the Coopers?" Now Jason was the one confused. "I mean, why would you shelf them? They're yours. You created them with your own hand and they've been with you through thick and thin..."

"You saved Asami with them, you defeated Chazz and Bastion with them, and you defeated three Shadow Riders with them." He listed off. "Why're you changing your deck now?"

"I'm not neglecting them if that's what you're not so subtly implying." Jason frowned. "And I'm not changing my deck. I'm just creating a second one with Tweener's cards..." he softened his expression. "I promised on his grave before we came back here that I would make him proud of me. I wanna be able to use his cards as best I can..."

He looked over his shoulder. "Sly and the others get it..."

Jaden looked ahead behind Jason and saw a few of the duel spirits he had created with his power after Jason woke up from his coma.

Sly nodded. "We do. His friend's dead, Jaden. Its not wrong he wants to use his cards."

Tennessee, a raccoon wearing a cowboy hat and western clothes, nodded his agreement. "They were pals, Jay-man."

Bob, a fat raccoon wearing a leopard skin sash, spoke in prehistoric gibberish that translated out to: "Best pals..."

Galleth shrugged. "Being offended by Jason wanting to master his friend's deck is just plain ignorant."

Salim groaned. "It ain't stupid that he wants to the other cards. I say go ahead. Gives me time to sleep."

Jaden didn't think it was stupid or wrong, but he had another reason why he thought Jason using Tweener's cards was a bad idea. He didn't wanna voice it less he really hurt Jason's feelings. His little bro was already tethering off the edge and Jaden no way wanted to be what tipped him over. He wanted to be what pulled him back.

Yubel appeared just behind him. "Come on, guys, stop ganging up on him." She came to his rescue, much to his appreciation. "He's just voicing his opinion, that's all..."

Haou appeared, much to Yubel and Jaden's dismay as they were the only ones who could see and hear him.

"Hello, Haou." Jason deadpanned.

"Huh!?" Jaden, Yubel, and even Haou asked in disbelief. Jason blinked. "You can see him/me!?"

"Wha? No!" Jason answered. "Jaden just got really pissed all of a sudden, so I just assumed Haou came."

"Oh..." Jaden and Yubel nodded in understanding.

Haou scoffed. "You're lucky I approve of you as my brother now!" He said. Ever since Jason's dark streak in killing and hurting people began, Haou took a very kind liking to the disabled Yuki twin. It only escalated when Jason got worst and even seemed to enjoy what he did to people.

He sighed as he remembered his reason for appearing. "Anyway... I only grace you with my presence because I have something very important to say."

"I am on the edge of my seat..." Jaden responded bored.

Haou glared at him. "Well then, maybe I won't tell you..." he smirked. A little bit sad that Jaden didn't take the bait, he growled. "I liked you better when you yelled at me and argued with me over everything!"

"I did too..."

Haou frowned at Jaden's comeback. Not as stupid as Jaden, he knew what he meant. "Moving on... something's wrong in the air."

"In the air?" Jaden asked.

Jason was confused. "Wasn't me..." he held his hands up in confusion.

Haou nodded. "Very familiar energy... Energy from my second to final big battle."

Hearing that made Yubel gasped. "You mean it!?"

"As much as I enjoy lying, when it comes to the Demon and IT I don't mess around, Yubel." Haou responded cooly.

"It?" Jaden asked again, growing a little annoyed at being ignored as Haou and Yubel went down memory lane.

"It's now!?"

"That's what I just said!" Haou growled. "Damn, Yubel, stop repeating what I say."

"You gotta be lying to me!" Her denial was clear and it worried Jaden immensely. He hasn't seen her this scared since the battle with the Sacred Beasts last year.

Haou held his arms out. "Follow me and I'll show you where I sense it."

"You know what, I will!" None sparing Jaden a glance or explanation, Haou and Yubel vanished from the room, leaving Jaden and Jason alone with the five Cooper spirits as confused as them.

"Ummm..." it was Sly that broke the silence. "What's going on?"

Jason shrugged. "Search me..." he looked to his brother, who was staring intensely to the ground. "Jaden?"

'Second to last battle...' Jaden thought. 'I know his last battle was against the Demon and sealing away the Sacred Beasts, but who did he fight before him again?' He racked his brain to try and remember.

Jason frowned. "Jaden!"

Jaden's eyes widened as he heard Jason's voice, the pieces now falling into place as he now remembered.

'The Light of Destruction!'

Oh no! Was it here!? Now!? When he was at his weakest with his PTSD affecting his behavior!? If it was, then Jaden swore he was gonna punch a hole in the wall. He just came back from being a wanted criminal and now he possibly had this on top of his problems that he had with the fallout of that?

Again, why couldn't he catch a break!?

He shook his head. "Its nothing..." he looked to Jason's spirits. "You guys might wanna take precautions though, just to be safe."

Jason frowned again as his spirits listened to Jaden and disappeared to brace for a possible threat. "What's going on, Jaden?"

Jason still didn't know that he had a past life. Even if he made a quick appearance last year at the end of Jaden's battle with the Sacred Beasts, Jason wasn't conscious to see him. He especially didn't know that his past life was killed after fighting this enemy.

Jaden sighed. "Just being safe..." he ignored Jason's gaze as he went to his backpack that lay by the sink. He picked it up before going over to the desk and dumping the contents over the table. "Let's make you a new Hero deck."

Remembering why they were here, Jason nodded as he took out the Masked Hero fusions and the Mask Change spell and trap cards and spread them over the table.

As they began, Jaden thought about talking to Jason about a bunch of their issues. Looking at his little brother and only seeing him at his absolute worst made Jaden's chest constrict. He hated to see Jason so broken and angry. He wanted to find whatever words that were needed to get Jason back to the way he was before. He wanted his little brother back, not the monster that was beside him.

"Carlos called me last night..." Jaden revealed, figuring he say something positive first. This way, he had time to figure out exactly how to talk to Jason... although he needed help too.

Jason looked interested. "Really? What about?"

Jaden had to give a ghost of a smile. "He's back in his home country of Mexico with Megumi."

"Wow, good for him." Jason nodded. Jaden swore he saw the workings of a smile on Jason's face. That was good, he felt. It was a decent start.

Jaden nodded back, moving around some cards on the desk. "Yeah, really good for him. He looked so happy when we talked. I've never seen that guy look so happy before and he got excited about everything that went well for us."

Jason had to chuckle at remembering Carlos' shitty happy dance when they found the money in Watt Mills.

"He also said he's naming his kid after us..."

Jason stopped moving cards, turning back and looking to Jaden in surprise. "Really?" He sounded both awed and honored. "After us?"

'He's still there...' Jaden gave himself a nowadays rare grin at seeing the old Jason peer through. He was just reminded that while Jason got darker, very understandably so, he wasn't evil now. But still, he couldn't find the words that he needed to get rid of the giant elephant in the room...

Jason's hatred for Aaron.

For that one, Jaden felt he was gonna need everyone. He was gonna need all his friends that were there this summer when everything went down. Maybe with all of them talking about it, Jason can maybe open his eyes.

He had a plan now, thank god.

Jaden nodded. "Yes, really. Jaden Jason Rodriguez for a boy and Melody Yuki Rodriguez for a girl."

Jason was wide eyed in astonishment. "Wow... I really don't know what to say." He admitted, holding two cards in his hand. "I'm honored he would put my name in his kid's..."

Jaden smiled. He was too.

"I'm happy Carlos is starting a new life. He deserves it."

Jaden agreed.

He then thought about telling Jason that Carlos asked about him and how he was doing. Truth be told, Jaden was worried that it could make Jason angry again. Not because of Carlos' concern for him, but being reminded of his personal problems. Jason was happy right now, however small it was. Jaden wouldn't do anything to push Jason back into his dark mood.

"Let's continue building your new deck. Chazz is probably growing impatient as is..." Jaden joked, also showing signs of recovery from his emotional and mental breakdown.

Jason nodded. Over the next ten minutes, they felt they assembled a deck that was good. Using Heroes for so many years helped them remember the best strategies and made it easier to build a deck around them.

As he looked over the deck one more time, Jason nodded in satisfaction as he was handed a duel disk by Jaden. Nodding to his brother, he inserted the deck in the disk before strapping it on.

'This is for you, Shane...' he declared as he and Jaden exited the room.

...

Another minute later found Jason and Chazz both standing opposite each other in front of the Slifer Dorm. Chazz had a mix of a confident and excited smirk on his face while Jason had a confident one on his.

Jaden, Syrus, Aaron, and the just arriving Alexis and Asami were standing off to the side.

"I'm so excited about this!" Asami squealed, having thrown her heels and rushed out her dorm room the moment Chazz called her.

"A rematch between Jason and Chazz? Its definitely gonna be interesting." Alexis agreed, just as eager to see this go down.

Jaden nodded. "Of course this is gonna be good. They're two of the best in the school." He reminded.

"And with Jason using the Masked Heroes, its sure to shake things up!" Syrus added, looking on intently for the upcoming duel.

Hearing Masked Heroes would've normally caused Aaron to tense now that he knew who gave them to Jason, but right now he was cool. The pills he took did wonders for his guilt. He couldn't imagine how any of the people he killed looked like and only remembered their names. The best part was that you couldn't tell if he was taking them unless he told you or you saw him do it.

He looked onward to the two boys. "Now I can see just how good Jason is."

"He's great, Dad." Asami grinned. Aaron had to smile. Despite everything that's happened, he was happy his daughter wasn't scared of him. "He's one of the best I've seen!"

"Then I can't wait to see myself."

Jason almost frowned when he heard Aaron's voice, but held it in. He did however smirk inwardly at his second reason for wanting to use Tweener's cards.

"Hope you're ready," Chazz called out to him.

"Trust me, I am..." Jason nodded. He held his disk up. "But I should warn you that this is gonna end the same way our first duel would've ended."

"You mean the one where I would've won if we didn't get cut off?" Chazz smirked.

"You sure about that...?" Jason smirked too, which made Chazz's drop.

"You drew a card that would've won you the duel, didn't you?" He deadpanned. Jason holding his smirk was all the answer Chazz needed. He frowned. "Well I'll make sure I win this time!"

They both activated their duel disks.

"Duel!"

Jason: 8000

Chazz: 8000

"Since you challenged me, I'll go first!" Chazz drew his card. "And I'll start by summoning Masked Dragon in defense mode!"

From a burst of light, a large dragon with a long neck and big wings appeared in a defensive curl. Most of its body was covered in white scales, but the underbelly was covered in red scales. As for the name, the face looked like was a covered by a mask. (ATK: 1400/DEF: 1100)

"And I'll end with two cards facedown!" Chazz concluded as two reversed cards appeared on the field.

'That's oddly similar to when he dueled Jaden in the School Duel...' Jason noticed. He smirked. 'This is gonna be fun.'

"I draw..." Jason drew his sixth card. "I'll start things off with Elemental Hero Shadow Mist in attack mode!"

Appearing on Jason's field was a woman with a curvy figure in black armor. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 1500)

"Now that's a new one..." Alexis noted, thinking that she had seen every Elemental Hero from Jaden.

"Jason's using Heroes?" Asami asked the question. She looked to Jaden. "What happened to his Coopers?" She always loved seeing Jason use his cards that he made. It gave him a unique style and identity that no one can copy from him. To see him use something else was weird.

Jaden shrugged. "He wants to use his friend Shane's cards as best as he can." He explained. Immediately, Asami's face softened as she looked over to her father first and then her boyfriend. Much to her surprise, her dad was calm; almost like he was in a daze and hadn't heard what Jaden said despite the short distance between them.

Alexis nodded sympathetically. "That makes sense."

"And now I'll activate the continuous spell card Banner of Courage!" Jason inserted another spell card that depicted a giant red flag with the symbol for courage imprinted on it. "Now all my monsters will gain 200 ATK points during the battle phase, which will give my Shadow Mist more than enough to destroy your Masked Dragon!"

Shadow Mist was enveloped with a red aura as her power rose. (ATK: 1000-1200)

"Attack his Masked Dragon!" Shadow Mist then charged in and delivered a strong punch to destroy Chazz's dragon.

"I activate my Masked Dragon's special ability!" Chazz declared, "When he's destroyed in battle, I can summon a Dragon-Type monster with 1500 or fewer attack points from my deck, and I have just the one! C'mon out, Armed Dragon LV3!"

At that command, a small dragon with orange and brown scaly armor, wings coming out of its back, sharp little teeth, and a set of spikes in its chest appeared, with a small roar. (ATK: 1200/DEF: 900)

Jason sighed. "Well there was nothing else that I could've done..."

Chazz smirked. "And for that, I am relieved."

Jason smirked back. "Well know this... I'm not gonna go down easy..." he inserted two cards into his disk. "And I'll place two cards facedown to end my turn!"

"Jason's in trouble..." Syrus noted.

"Yeah..." Aaron's voice peered through the group. Strangely, he sounded very calm and held that intelligent tone that made him the leader in hunting down the Domino Eight. "Now Chazz will be able to level up his dragon on his turn, which'll put Jason in a tight spot."

"Its my draw," Chazz picked up a card. "And as you know, Jason, during my Standby Phase, Armed Dragon's effect activates. By sacrificing his LV3 form," he paused and placed the LV3 card into his slot, "I can summon Armed Dragon LV5 right to the field!"

Now appearing was a much larger dragon with dark red and black scales, and bigger claws and fangs appeared in its place. (ATK: 2400/DEF: 1700)

"And here we go..." Jason muttered.

"And now thanks to his ability, I discard my Flying Kamakiri #1 to destroy your Shadow Mist since she was less than 1000 points!"

Jason braced for it as Armed Dragon LV 5 let loose a giant roar that ripped apart his Hero.

"Now Jason's defenseless!" Syrus squeaked.

However, despite the destruction of his monster, Jason smiled. "Now I activate my Shadow Mist's ability! You see when she's sent to my graveyard, I can take any Hero monster from my deck and add it to my hand!"

"Any Hero card!?" Chazz asked.

"Any Hero card. But first I'll chain it with one of my facedowns, Elemental Mirage!" Jason's first trap flipped up to show Sparkman being surrounded by shattered glass. "Now when a Hero monster is destroyed by a card effect, I can return it right back to the field!"

Shadow Mist appeared for a second round. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 1500)

"But that also activates Shadow Mist's second ability," Jason smirked on everyone's surprised face, minus Jaden and Aaron. "Now when she's special summoned, I can add a card with the word 'Change' in its name to my hand along with the Hero monster from earlier!"

He collected Mask Change and Elemental Hero Heat.

"Impressive..." Chazz nodded. "You got your monster back, but also added two more cards to your hand as well..."

Jason smirked. "Badass, right?"

"Very..." Asami smiled. She was also smiling because Jason looked happy. He looked like he was having fun and was temporarily forgetting his troubles. It made her heart flutter happily.

Plus, she was also happy that chick Misaki wasn't here to comment on how badass Jason was. In case it wasn't obvious yet, Asami didn't appreciate the girl's crush on her boyfriend.

Chazz shrugged before he smirked again. "Well I'll continue my move. Armed Dragon LV5, attack Shadow Mist with Inferno Roar!"

For the second time, Armed Dragon let loose a roar that destroyed Shadow Mist.

Jason: 6600

Chazz: 8000

"Now my Shadow Mist's ability activates," Jason pressed a button on his disk. "But I'll chain it with Hero Signal!" A large 'H' appeared in the sky. "Now I can special summon Elemental Hero Ocean to my field in defense mode!"

The second major water themed hero appeared in a kneeling position. (ATK: 1500/DEF: 1200)

"And thanks to Shadow Mist, I'll add Lady Heat to my hand!" He collected the second half to the Heats.

"Awww, how cute." Alexis teased as she looked to Asami. The pink haired girl turned confused. "He has both Heats in his hand now and what did you two dress up as last year for Duel Monsters Spirit Day?"

Asami blushed as she remembered. "Oh yeah..."

Jaden gave a tiny smile, happy to see things resemble how they were before. Seeing this gave him hope. It shined a light for a happy future for them.

Aaron nodded too. "Oh yeah, you showed me those pictures." He gave a teasing frown. "I still don't like how much skin that costume showed."

Alexis and Syrus laughed hysterically at Asami's cherry red face, remembering all of the guys' comments about her costume. Chazz too took a second to laugh while the Yuki twins were either smirking or frowning.

"Daddy!" Asami whined, regretting showing her dad pictures of her and Jason together last year.

Chazz brought the attention back to the duel. "I haven't used my normal summon yet, so I'll summon my Ojama Blue in defense mode!"

The blue skinned Ojama appeared on defense. (ATK: 0/DEF: 1000)

"Again with the defending," he sighed.

Chazz's forehead ticked. "You got 0 ATK points, so quit with the whining about the defense!" He exclaimed. Ojama Blue mumbled something, but didn't counter his argument. "Now that my End Phase is here, I can level up the LV5 Dragon to a LV7 one since he destroyed your monster!"

Armed Dragon leveled up again into its my much larger and more threatening form. (ATK: 2800/DEF: 1000)

Jason remained calm however.

"Jason is staring down one of Chazz's best monsters and with lower life points!" Syrus commented. "He needs to make a comeback!"

"And he will..." Asami said confidently. "He always finds a way to make a comeback, its what makes him a great duelist."

"But its not gonna be easy." Alexis reminded.

"Touché."

"My draw," Jason drew, having six cards in his hand. "Now thanks to Ocean's ability, I can add Shadow Mist right back to my hand!" He took the aforementioned Hero card.

"Now I'll kick things into high gear with some fusion action!" He declared. "I play Polymerization to fuse Ocean with the Shadow Mist I just brought back to form Elemental Hero Absolute Zero!"

The white caped hero appeared with a blizzard following him. (ATK: 2500/DEF: 2000)

"And with Shadow Mist back to the graveyard, I can add Sparkman to my hand!" He took his Hero card. He then smirked. "Time to unleash the power of the Masked Heroes!"

"Here we go..." Jaden muttered.

"I activate Mask Change to transform my Absolute Zero into a new monster!" He looked to his Hero. "Take it away, buddy! Perform the Transformation Summoning!"

Absolute Zero nodded as he grabbed a blue mask that appeared by his hand. He placed it on his face and was soon enveloped by a bright blue light. When it died down, a new monster wearing a dark blue suit of armor with a golden star imprinted in the middle of his chest. He strangely looked like an alien and even had a ray gun to boot with a holster on his side. (ATK: 2600/DEF: 2100)

"Meet Masked Hero Acid," Jason introduced. "And now, since Absolute Zero left the field, all your monsters are destroyed!" Chazz gasped. "Save your gasps because it gets better," he smirked. "When Masked Hero Acid is special summoned, all your spells and traps are destroyed as well!"

Chazz could only watch in horror as a cold blizzard destroyed his Armed Dragon and his Ojama Blue, whose effect he couldn't even use due to it not being destroyed by battle.

Acid added insult by firing a shot from his ray gun to Chazz's facedown card.

"That was Dummy Marker!" Chazz revealed. "Now I can draw a card from my deck." He drew, having three.

Jason smirked. "I hope it helps because I am about to put the hurt on you..." he took another card from his hand. "Now I normal summon Elemental Hero Heat in attack mode!"

The buff red armoured hero appeared by Acid. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1200)

"And now he gains 200 ATK points for every Elemental Hero on my side, including himself." Heat was surrounded by a red aura. (ATK: 1600-1800)

"And now that we're entering my Battle Phase, my monsters gain 200 more ATK points due to Banner of Courage!" (ATK: 2600-2800) (ATK: 1800-2000)

"FYI... this is gonna hurt... a lot..."

Chazz braced for it as Heat cupped his hands together and fired a fireball towards Chazz as Acid fired a beam from his ray gun.

Jason: 6600

Chazz: 3200

"Holy shit!" Syrus exclaimed at the large drop in points.

"I am right there with you, Syrus!" Asami gasped as well.

"Way to go, Jason." Alexis muttered quietly at the drop in points.

"Now that's a comeback..." Jaden nodded.

"Using Absolute Zero as his tribute for the Mask Change to wipe Chazz's monsters from the field, and summoning Acid to wipe out Chazz's spells and traps with them, Jason allowed himself a clear path to Chazz's life points..." Aaron deciphered.

"That's the strategic Jason that we all know and love," Alexis smiled, thrilled to see old pieces of her friend return.

"But not more than me..." Asami grinned. She dropped it. "Well, maybe aside from Jaden." She admitted.

Jaden had to smile at hearing that. He did love Jason more than anything else on this planet. More so than dueling, food, and even Alexis. He was his family and nothing would ever change that.

Jason looked over his four card hand. "I'll end with one facedown..." he concluded. "Let's see you return from that combo..." he smirked.

Chazz smirked back. "You haven't lost your touch at all..." he acknowledged. "You're still one of the best on this island."

Jason nodded. "Thanks..."

"But now I have to make a comeback of my own..." he drew, having four. "I'll play Pot of Greed to draw two more cards!" He did so. "Then I'll play Level Modulation! You can draw two cards, but now I get to revive a LV monster from my graveyard!"

Jason drew his two cards, but had to watch as Armed Dragon LV7 returned to the field with a powerful roar. (ATK: 2800/DEF: 1000)

"But he won't be around for long as I sacrifice him to special summon my most powerful Armed Dragon!"

"Uh-oh..." Jason muttered.

"Jason's in trouble now." Alexis said.

"Ditto..." Asami nodded.

"Come out Armed Dragon LV10!"

The new look had the dragon like it was wearing black and silver metal armor around the red scales. All the sharp blades became sharper and the claws were large. (ATK: 3000/DEF: 2000)

"And his ability is a handy one, by discarding any card from my hand," he did so. "All your face up monsters are destroyed!"

Jason watched as the blades from the dragon shot out towards and destroyed his two monsters, leaving him defenseless.

"And the card I discarded was Ojamagic, so my three Ojamas come right to my hand!" He took the three cards, bringing his hand to five.

"Hiya, Jason!" The three brothers shouted out from their position behind Chazz.

Jason gave a nod over towards them.

"And your life points are wide open..." Chazz reminded. "Armed Dragon LV10, attack directly with Static Orb Thrust!"

The high level Dragon prepped a ball of energy that was leaking out sparks from all sides. He shot it forward to Jason, who braced for it as the orb hit him dead on.

Jason: 3600

Chazz: 3200

"And one facedown ends my turn." Chazz concluded, having a hand of four. "Gotta say, I didn't expect your facedown to be a bluff." He admitted.

"I gotta say, I was surprised too." Syrus admitted. "I thought that facedown would stop Chazz's attack or save Jason's monsters."

"Me too..." Alexis confessed.

"Let's see how Jason gets outta this one..." Jaden mused. "With Armed Dragon LV10 on the field and Chazz's dangerous trio laying in waiting, it'll be a good show."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Asami nodded.

Aaron stayed silent as he watched, curious to see as to how Jason will get outta this one.

Jason drew, having six in his hand. "I'll set this monster in defense mode and place another facedown to end my turn."

Chazz drew. "I'll summon X-Head Cannon in attack mode!" The blue machine appeared beside the Armed Dragon. (ATK: 1800/DEF: 1500) "Now I'll attack your facedown monster!"

"I'll activate Mirror Force to destroy both your monsters!"

"Sorry Jason, but I'll reveal my Trap Jammer to destroy it!"

"Oh boy!" Alexis gasped. "Chazz got him!"

"Is Jason about to lose!?" Asami asked shocked.

Despite everything, Jason smirked. "Now let me show you why I didn't do anything last turn..." his second trap flipped over, showing a very familiar card...

"Trap Jammer!?"

"Yessir, now your trap is cancelled out and my Mirror Force goes through."

"Damn!" Chazz cursed as both of his monsters were destroyed. He then noticed something. "Wait a minute!" Jason raised an eyebrow. "Mirror Force was your card last turn!?"

"Yeah... why?"

"Why didn't you activate it? You couldn't have known that Trap Jammer was my facedown card!"

Jason sighed. "There's something that Tweener told me while we were still in East Domino..." he looked down to his disk. "He said 'Using your cards right away can lead to you wishing you saved it. Sometimes its better to wait it out and see.'"

Jaden nodded, remembering Jason telling him that shortly before they escaped.

"And he was right," Jason smiled. "Had I used it last turn, then I wouldn't have had any defense to stop your X-Head Cannon and I would've been screwed. Sure I lost a lot of points, but I maintained field advantage!"

Chazz was surprised. That was true. Now that he lost both his monsters, he had nothing left. Only the three Ojamas and one more trap card. Still, it didn't mean he was giving up.

"I'll end my turn with one facedown..." Chazz ended.

Jason drew. He looked over his options. "I'll summon Elemental Hero Lady Heat in attack mode!" Appearing on his field was the attractive blonde hair light skinned heroine of fire. (ATK: 1300/DEF: 1000)

"Now Jason can take it over to Chazz's life points!" Asami exclaimed. She piped down upon the raised eyebrow look Chazz was giving her. "Ummm... sorry, Chazzy." She apologized, placing a winning smile on her face.

Jason gave a chuckle at the banter. "Now I'll attack, which activates my Banner of Courage!" (ATK: 1300-1500) "Lady Heat, attack with Burning Fist!"

Lady Heat unleashed a ball of flames that encircled around her fist. She then charged in and delivered a blow to Chazz's face, making him stagger.

Jason: 3600

Chazz: 1700

"My trap card now activates, go Damage Condenser!" His trap flipped up to show a capsule shooting out electrical sparks. "Now I discard my Ojama Black to special summon a monster equal to the damage I just took!"

"Why me!? The Ojama asked as he was sucked into the graveyard.

"Now my Y-Dragon Head is summoned to the field!" The red metallic dragon appeared in defense mode. (ATK: 1500/DEF: 1600)

Jason shrugged. "I wanted to use this to win, but I guess I'll use it now." He flipped over the card he just drew. "I'll use my second Mask Change to summon another Masked Hero monster!"

He looked to Lady Heat. "Perform the Transformation Summoning if you will, please?" He gave a smile.

"I think I found his card crush..." Syrus muttered. All eyes, minus Chazz and Jason, were on him. He blinked surprised, not expecting anyone to hear him. "Remember last year we talked about card crushes with Bastion?" He looked to Jaden for this one.

The Evil Hero duelist patted Syrus on the back. "Give the man a prize." He nodded. "Yep. He's always had a little thing for Lady Heat." He revealed, looking to see if Jason had heard him. Luckily, he didn't.

Asami had to smile. "That's so cute. I didn't know Jason had a card crush." She was thinking about bringing out her Lady Heat costume again, which she still had in her dorm room. She gave a perverted grin to herself. She had a very good idea!

Alexis smiled too. "Before it would've been adorable, now that Jason's a lot different than he was, its really cute." She said. Now that Jason was a lot darker, to hear he still had a card crush was sweet.

Aaron was a little weirded out. "The guy who wants to kill me has a crush on a card?" He was so quiet no one heard him. Just saying it was so creepy.

"What're you guys talking about?" Jason asked.

Asami shook her head to wipe her perverted smile off of it. "Nothing; just about how cute you are." She gave a normal smile to him.

Jason blinked, unsure. "O... K?" He admitted slowly, turning his attention back to the duel. "Well anyway, Lady Heat will now perform the summoning."

A red mask appeared by Lady Heat's hand. She grabbed it and put it on, being engulfed by a red light. When it died down, Lady Heat was now clad in a new red and black outfit with a mask that had blue visor. She then charged up, letting flames fly out of and surround her body. (ATK: 2200/DEF: 1800)

"Meet Masked Hero Goka! Now thanks to his ability, he gains 100 ATK for every Hero card in my graveyard!" Images of Shadow Mist, Ocean, Heat, Lady Heat and Absolute Zero appeared. He gained more power due to Banner of Courage. (ATK: 2200-2700-2900)

"Attack his Y-Dragon Head with Flaming Red Hammer!" Goka, like with Lady Heat before, circled a pattern of flames around his hand. Pretty soon, he flew in and rammed his fist through the red dragon, destroying it.

Jason: 3600

Chazz: 400

"He almost has this won!" Asami gasped.

"One more attack and Chazz is done!" Alexis added in surprise.

Jaden wasn't counting Chazz out yet.

"Your move..."

"And I'll make the most of it!" Chazz drew. "I play Card of Sanctity to let us both draw until we're holding six cards each!" They each did. "And now I'll play Monster Reincarnation to discard Z-Metal Tank to get back Ojama Black!"

"Finally out of that stinking graveyard!" He shuddered as Chazz collected his card.

"Next, I summon Ojama Red!" The next Ojama appearing was a small red monster, with a slightly chubby body, the same bikini briefs, but it stood out more with a yellow handkerchief around its neck and onion shaped head. He had an angry look to him. (ATK: 0/DEF: 1000)

"Let's kick some butt, boss!" The Ojama grinned.

"And when he's summoned, every Ojama Monster in my hand comes out to play!" He continued as he placed the other three monsters out. "Yellow, Black, and Green, get out here!"

"If you say so, boss!" The Ojama spirits announced as they went from transparent to visible on the field. (ATK: 0/DEF: 1000)x3

Jason raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessing you have another plan."

"Got that right," Chazz inserted his last card. "I'll play Card of Demise!" He drew a whole new hand.

"Oh I see..." Aaron nodded. "Used up his hand to draw the full five."

"And now I'll play the Ojama Country field spell!" The terrain was transformed into the home of the Ojamas.

"Home sweet home!" They all shouted.

"Now the ATK and DEF of all monsters switch." Chazz reminded as the stats of the four Ojamas and Masked Hero Goka changed. (ATK: 2700-1800-2300/DEF: 1800-2200) (ATK: 0-1000/DEF: 1000-0)×4

"A good try, but my Goka is still more powerful than your Ojamas." Jason pointed out.

"I was getting to that, my friend." Chazz said. He took two more cards from his hand. "Now I'll play both Shrink and the Big March of Animals to raise my monsters' strength and cut your Goka's in half."

"Damn..." Jason cursed. (ATK: 2200-1100-1600) (ATK: 1000-1800)×4

Chazz smirked. "Time to go in for the attacks. Ojama Red, take out his Goka!"

"Got it!" The red Ojama ran forward and threw a punch that had a lot more power than they all thought behind it.

Jason: 3400

Chazz: 400

"Ojama Yellow, take out his facedown monster!"

"No offense, Jason!" Ojama Yellow apologized as he charged in. Once he punched down, the monster Jason was hiding was revealed. It was a small skeleton with its face covered by a white mask with yellow eyes and a red cape around its neck. It also wielded a grey scepter with a red jewel inside. (ATK: 600-700/DEF: 700-600)

"Meet Phantom Magician..." Jason introduced. "Once destroyed, I can special summon any Hero with 1000 or less ATK points in face up defense mode." He searched his deck. "I pick Avian!"

The feathered hero appeared in a kneeling position. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000)

Chazz laughed. "You just don't give up. Ojama Black, take him down!"

"Take this chowdahead!" He snarled as he kicked upward and destroyed the feathered hero.

"Ojama Green, go in for the attack!"

"Sointly!" He nodded as he ran forward. He jumped and delivered a strong punch to Jason's face.

Jason: 1600

Chazz: 400

"And I'll end it with two cards facedown!" He concluded, satisfied with his move as the Ojamas powered down. (ATK: 1800-1000)×4

"Chazz took the lead!" Asami gasped.

"He wiped out Jason's field in one turn!" Alexis added just as shocked.

"I gotta say, he does use those Ojamas well." Aaron admitted. "No one would even think of using weak monsters like them, but Chazz makes it work."

"Which is what makes him a dangerous opponent." Jaden nodded.

"I am curious to see how you get outta this one Jason." Chazz folded his arms. "With my four monsters to your none, you're in quite a predicament!"

Jason smirked. "I've been in worse... Remember Sara's Greed card?"

"Don't remind me!" Chazz and Asami both yelled, hating that card with a passion after last year.

Syrus and Alexis both laughed while Jaden sighed at the reminder of that annoying trap card. Aaron looked amused at the reactions.

Jason shrugged. "I'll do what I can to win," he drew. He smirked. "And I think I know where to start. I summon Elemental Hero Bubbleman!"

The original water themed hero appeared with his bubble gun pointed and ready. (ATK: 800-1200/DEF: 1200-800)

"And since my friend here is alone, I get two new cards." He did so, almost laughing at his findings. "Oh boy, you are not gonna like this."

Chazz raised an eyebrow.

"I play my third and final Mask Change! Now Bubbleman will become Masked Hero Vapor!"

Chazz watched as Bubbleman took out a dark blue mask and donned it. Like with Absolute Zero and Lady Heat, his form was enveloped in a light and his outfit changed. It was now another shade of blue, still lighter than the original blue, but darker than Bubbleman's original color. He also wielded a long, white, double-pointed spear and poised it threateningly at the Ojamas. (ATK: 2400-2000/DEF: 2000-2400)

All Ojamas huddled together. "He's gonna kill us!"

Jason was a little hurt by the words of the Ojamas, although he knew they meant no harm by them. He's heard that phrase so many times in the past two months that it only brought bad memories back to him.

"Interesting," Chazz nodded at the look of the monster, not paying the Ojamas screams any mind. "Looks cool."

"He was Shane's favorite..." Jason was quiet, everyone giving him that second to calm himself. Aaron was really thrilled that his pills were still in effect or else he would be hyperventilating right now. Instead, he just looked down ashamedly.

Asami walked over to her dad and wrapped her arms around him in a soothing way, the ex-cop hugging his baby girl back. Asami knew how much it hurt her dad to do what he did and wanted him to feel better just as much as she did Jason.

Chazz looked at Jason with a small look of worry and pity. 'He really cared about him.'

Jason regained his composure. "Anyway, I'll attack your Ojama Yellow!" Vapor gained a boost from Banner of Courage. (ATK: 2000-2200)

Yellow was freaking out as the spear came for him. "Boss!"

"Quit your whining, I activate Justi-Break destroying all monsters, but leaving the normal monsters in attack mode!"

"That's great!" Yellow, Black and Green cheered.

"That's not great!" Red shouted. "I'm an effect monster!"

Jason smirked. "Vapor can't be destroyed by effects, Chazz. So you just wasted your card."

"Did I...?" His smirk made Jason uneasy. "How about some Forbidden Chalice for Vapor?" Chazz asked as his facedown flipped up.

"He's gonna have to decline." Jason shook his head.

"No please, I insist."

Vapor was poured with holy water, granting him some strength but taking away his effect. (ATK: 2200-2600)

Lightning emitted from Chazz's trap blocking Vapor's attempt at striking the yellow Ojama and destroyed. But unfortunately, Ojama Red was also caught in the crossfire.

"Oh the horror!" He cried as he shattered as well.

Jason sighed as he looked at his seven card hand. "I'll place four facedowns to end my turn." He concluded, filling up his spell and trap card zone.

"They're down to the wire..." Aaron noted as he and Asami stopped hugging.

"Both of them down to less than 2000 life points and going back and forth with stopping each other's attacks." Alexis listed. "This is a very exciting duel!"

"I'm enjoying this a lot!" Syrus nodded.

"Me too..." Jaden admitted.

Chazz drew his lone card. He glanced Jason's field over. 'He obviously wants me to attack him.' He smirked. 'Too bad I'm not going to.'

"I activate Battle Mania," Jason's voice broke through. "Which means that you must attack me."

Chazz scowled. "You heard him, boys. Attack!"

"On it!" They yelled as they all charged in.

"Go A Hero Emerges!" One of Jason's traps flipped up. "Now you pick a card in my hand and if it is a monster, I can summon it." He held his three card hand. "Now choose."

'I know he has a Sparkman in there due to his Shadow Mist's ability from a while ago.' Chazz remembered. He frowned when he looked at Jason's face. 'And he's gotten so good at masking his emotions that I can't tell if he's trying to psych me out or not.'

He shrugged. "I choose the far left."

Jason took a glance at it. "Good guess..." Chazz smirked again. It dropped at Jason's next words as he smirked back. "For me." He put the card on the disk. "Come on out, Sparkman!"

The electric themed hero appeared on Jason's field, sparks shooting out of his hands. (ATK: 1600-1400/DEF: 1400-1600)

"Oh no!" Chazz gasped.

"And since this isn't enough to win, I'll activate Mask Change-"

"You already used all three copies!" Chazz reminded.

Jason blinked. "... Mask Change Second." He finished, making Chazz eat his words as another facedown flipped up, showing a young man in silver armor surrounded by the masks of the Masked Heroes.

"By discarding a card," he did so. "I can sacrifice Sparkman to perform the Transformation Summoning!"

"I should've known that Jason would have other ways to summon his Masked Heroes." Alexis mused. "Only having three cards to do it doesn't sound like him."

Jaden gave a smirk. "I'm offended that you doubted my brother." He joked, getting her to smile at him. Normally she would defend herself, but seeing Jaden crack a joke was worth being quiet. Nowadays it was nice to listen to him act like his old self.

Jason looked over to Sparkman. "Good ahead, my friend."

Sparkman nodded as a golden mask appeared in front of him. He grabbed the mask and put it on, being enveloped by a bright light like all the others. Once it died down, it revealed Sparkman now clad in a golden armor that looked to be made of diamonds. His mask had what resembled spikes on the back and two long sharp yellow spears attached to both wrists. He also had sharp diamonds sticking out of his knees. (ATK: 2500-1800/DEF: 1800-2500)

"Meet Masked Hero Koga and he has a very handy ability." The one eyed duelist smirked. "He gains 500 ATK points for every monster on your side."

Chazz was wide eyed as Koga brightened with power. (ATK: 1800-3300)

"And remember Battle Mania..."

The Ojamas, who were being suspended mid air the entire time, were now being pulled towards Koga, who had one of his golden spears raised and ready to strike.

"Boss, help!"

Chazz looked at the card in his hand and gasped. "Hold on!" He quickly inserted it. "Go Flash Fusion! Now I merge my Ojamas!"

"Yay!" They all cheered as they were sucked into the fusion hole. Popping out was the giant Ojama.

"Hello!" He gave two peace signs. (ATK: 0-3000/DEF: 3000-0)

"With two monsters gone, Koga loses 1000 ATK points." Asami said worriedly as Koga's light turned down a little. (ATK: 3300-2300)

Chazz smirked. "And since you want me to attack so bad, I'll go on ahead and destroy your Koga!"

"I'm on it!" Ojama King promised as he jumped up. Everyone waited for Jason to do something to stop or deflect the attack. He just stood there, looking down at his disk as he muttered something.

"Is he counting!?" Chazz asked shockingly as Ojama King landed on top of Koga, kicking up a giant dust cloud.

"I can't see!" Syrus exclaimed as he tried to look past the smoke. Everyone else was in the same boat as him, trying to peek past the dust cloud.

Ojama King landed back to Chazz. "I got him, boss."

The dust cloud finally settled, showing Jason standing with a menacing smirk on his face. Chazz immediately recognized it as his 'I'm gonna kill you' smirk.

What shocked him more was that while Koga was gone, another monster was on his field instead!

It was a green armoured hero with a long white cape flowing in the wind behind him. His green mask had red eyes and were glowing in Chazz's direction. His right hand had red energy building up in a circle on his palm, brightening the Ojama Country. (ATK: 2700-1900/DEF: 1900-2700)

Jason: 500

Chazz: 400

"What happened!?" Chazz asked. "Why's this guy here!?"

Jason responded by pointing to his fourth and final facedown. It showed a man bursting out of a silver armor bodysuit surrounded by a golden silhouette.

"This is Form Change and what this does is swap out a Hero monster with a Masked Hero of the same level but a different name." He then added. "Since Koga and this guy, Masked Hero Kamikaze, are both Level 8, I swapped them."

"But why is he still here?"

Jason then laughed, which sounded very weird coming from him with how he was right now. "He can't be destroyed in battle." Chazz gasped. "And since you have no moves left to make, Flash Fusion's drawback kicks in and returns Ojama King to your deck."

"I have failed!" He yelled as he was sucked into a portal that opened up above the Ojama Country. With him gone, Kamikaze's ATK points returned to normal. (ATK: 1900-2700/DEF: 2700-1900)

Chazz conceded. "I end my turn..." he smiled. "You've earned this win."

Jason smiled back as he drew. "Thanks for an amazing match. Kamikaze, end this..."

Kamikaze poised his right hand out to Chazz and unleashed the red energy he was charging up. It hit Chazz in the chest, ending the game and making the holograms disappear.

Jason: 500 (Winner)

Chazz: 0

The spectators were all in awe at the end of an epic match. Asami grinned before she ran up to Jason and threw her arms around him in a hug, the Masked Hero duelist wrapping one around her to keep her balanced.

"That was so epic!" She cheered as she kissed his cheek. "Those Masked Heroes are very cool!"

"I'll say..." Alexis nodded as everyone else joined up with them. "Those are some very powerful cards, Jason. You used them well."

He looked at her hopefully after hearing her say that. "You really think so?" He thought he did alright for his first official duel with the Masked Heroes, but nothing really spectacular.

Alexis had to smile at the tone Jason used. He sounded really sweet. Nothing like how he's been acting as of lately. "Your friend Shane would be proud of you."

"I knew the guy too and I agree with Lex." Jaden said. "You pulled off some amazing moves there, Jason." He looked over to Chazz. "So did you, Chazz. You guys were totally going back and forth."

"I didn't know who was gonna win," Syrus admitted. "At times I thought Chazz and other times I thought Jason."

Aaron wasn't sure what to say. Jason was looking at him with a narrowed eye look, almost as if he was looking for him to say or do something.

He nodded to the two duelists. "That was an interesting duel. You both did great."

Chazz nodded while Jason seemed a little disappointed. He hoped that using the Masked Heroes in front of Aaron would at least make the man feel uncomfortable considering they used to own to a kid he killed. Either he really didn't care or he did a really good job of hiding it.

He was broken out of his assumptions by Chazz calling his name. "You might've won this duel, but it isn't nowhere near the last one we'll have." He gave a cocky smirk. "I'll beat you and Jaden both someday, so you better enjoy this victory while it lasts."

Jason smirked back. "Well I'll be waiting for it..." he said as the two shook hands, promising the other a rematch in the future that would be as great as this duel was.

Jaden decided to throw in his two cents. "Well that'll have to wait. It's almost time for curfew." He pointed out the setting sun.

Asami hummed. "Wow... didn't even notice..." she looked towards her boyfriend. "Good night then, Jacey." She kissed him, to which Jason returned with as much fervor as he could manage given his situation. Asami was thrilled, although she felt her dad's stare on them. She looked to her dad next. "Night, Daddy." She kissed her dad's cheek.

"Night, sweetie." Aaron muttered back, still feeling a little bit awkward from watching his daughter kiss her boyfriend in front of him the way they did.

Alexis looked towards Jaden. "Guess I'll see you tomorrow..." Jaden nodded in agreement as the two of them shared their own kiss, although it wasn't near as passionate as they could make it sense, unlike with Jason and Asami, Jaden and Alexis felt awkward getting too lovey dovey in front of an audience.

Chazz's nickname for them, 'Tamed Couple', was actually very accurate.

Jaden was the one to pull back. "See ya later girls." He gave a half wave as Alexis and Asami started to walk back to their dorm together, leaving the five guys by themselves.

Now that the duel was over, Jaden found his thoughts racing to Yubel and Haou. What were they doing? Where the hell were they to begin with? He tried calling for her, but Yubel wasn't answering him; possibly ignoring him. He frowned. Was it really as bad as Haou said?

Was the Light of Destruction here?

"Jaden?" Syrus' voice broke him out of his thoughts as Jaden turned to see Aaron entering his room on the ground level with Chazz already in their room and Jason in his. Syrus was standing in the doorway. "You coming?"

He nodded. "Yeah... I'm coming." He mumbled before he walked off in the direction towards his room, many thoughts and concerns plaguing his mind the whole way up.

...

"What're we looking for?"

Haou rolled his eyes as Yubel asked him the same question for the fifth time since the two of them left the dorm room. They were hovering around the spot where Jaden had dueled Aster the other day. It was getting close to dark, the ending to Jason and Chazz's duel echoing above them.

"You're making me miss Jason and Chazz's duel," Haou had to smirk. He enjoyed messing with Yubel. Since his wake up call back when he was alive, it was all too easy to get on her nerves. "If I don't get an answer in the next two seconds, I'm going back!" She warned angrily.

Alright, it was time for him to get serious.

He pointed to the spot where Aster stood the day before. "Look at that and tell me what you see."

Yubel followed his finger and saw where he was pointing. She saw rocks, dirt, and more dirt. She frowned. "You're screwing with me again, you idiot! What's there!? Dirt!?"

Haou frowned. "Shut up and look closer!" He exclaimed.

Humoring him, Yubel stared very closely at the spot he was pointing to. After much looking, the outlines of a white light started to enter her vision. Now seeing something was there, she focused her attention solely on that spot to get the full picture.

And then she saw what Haou was seeing. A small ball of white energy floating about.

White energy she immediately recognized.

The Light of Destruction.

"Looks like Aster Phoenix is in cahoots with the Light." Haou guessed. "The energy is too small, so Phoenix isn't hosting it. He was near it, and for a good chunk of time too. I even sensed some back up where Jason was dueling that Alex guy, so he is most likely a part of it too."

Yubel was shocked. The energy; the malice; the fear from many years ago. It all came back the moment she carefully looked ahead to the spot Haou pointed out.

"I can't believe it..." she barely muttered out. "Now? It's here now?"

Haou shrugged. "That's my assumption. Why else would this energy be here? All traces of it were killed off by me and The Demon..." he frowned. "Apparently that idiot missed a spot." He spat in disdain of the creature that had killed his brother Mamoru.

"You don't think he purposely let it go to maybe one day control it?" Yubel asked in disbelief. Memories she didn't want to relive were now replaying in her head. Images of death, torture, and carnage were moving through at a break neck pace. She almost lost her breath at the sudden burst of memories.

Haou laughed. "With how power hungry that son of a bitch was... I think so." He would be lying if he said he wasn't a little happy that the Light of Destruction was back. Now he had another shot at it to get some sweet revenge. He hated being outsmarted. No one outsmarted him and lived to brag about it.

"What do we do?"

His response was rather skeptical and alarm inducing. "Put whatever differences we have aside to take this down." He didn't get annoyed at Yubel's disbelieving face. He saw it coming. He sighed. "I know you despise me for what I did."

"I trusted you... and you went off and killed people that respected and looked up to you for more power so you could kill The Demon."

Haou frowned. "That aside... this isn't an enemy Jaden can beat by himself, especially the way he is right now." Yubel gave him a curious expression. "He's on edge, Yubel." He explained. "You see his thoughts. After what he's done, he's not in a very safe mindset, this coming from me."

Truth be told, Haou didn't give a shit if Jaden went mentally insane or not. He just needed it to be on hold so he can be of some use. Burdens were not needed in a fight like the one coming.

Yubel begrudgingly admitted that was true. Jaden wasn't exactly the go to guy right now for a leader. He would most likely be too hot headed and brash and would do something stupid. He already did with his executions this summer.

"I think it's time for us to form an alliance, even if temporarily." Haou offered. "We don't have the power of The Demon like before. As much of an asshole as he was, he was powerful. He even stole Hamon from me. We need all the help we can get."

"How about the Scared Beasts? Can we get them?"

Haou laughed. "Jaden's not even ready for Super Polymerization. If he can't handle what made the Beasts, he can't use the Beasts themselves... and I know you aren't going to let me take Jaden's body, no matter what situation we end up in."

Yubel had to smirk. That was true. She rather have Jaden die than have Haou's influence out there in the world again for no one to stop him. It would be the end of everything as they knew it.

"But like I was saying... we need to put the feud on hold." Haou continued. "If we don't have all of us on the same side, then we're all gonna die and I ain't exactly looking for death; already got enough of that tossed my way these last two months."

He looked over to Yubel, "Truce... for now?"

Truth be told, she wanted to spit on him. She wasn't stupid. She clearly saw that he was only gonna use them to do his dirty work for him. Like he mentioned, he wasn't gonna be allowed to leave Jaden's subconscious. He couldn't actually participate in the battle against the Light of Destruction.

But she also saw that his cooperation was necessary. Jaden needed to be in perfect sync with Haou in order to pull out the most powerful Evil Hero and fusion card. The balance that Jaden obtained from last year's duel with the Sacred Beasts was off now that Jaden was in his state of PTSD. Haou's cooperation and assistance was more important now than ever before.

With as much will as she could, she swallowed her hesitation and decided to accept it.

Yubel frowned. "You do anything stupid..." she warned before she gave a forced nod over to the boy she had loved and gave her humanity for. If only she knew how bad he would turn out, she maybe could've stopped it and he wouldn't be this evil. Then maybe things could be different.

Haou nodded, almost expectantly. "Good... now we have to wait for Phoenix to come back. I doubt he's the one holding the power or else this might've been bigger." He pointed over to the small white light.

"How do you know he'll come back?"

Haou smirked. "Obviously the Light knows I'm here. A pro wouldn't be here dueling Jaden with fragments of the Light's energy around unless it knew who Jaden was. No. It knows I'm here... and he'll send Phoenix back to come after Jaden. I'm guessing he also wants Jason out of the way due to being Mamoru's reincarnation. My bro did lay waste to a good chunk of his army and pride, so we better assume Jason is on the hit list as well."

Yubel saw the logic in that statement. "Do we tell Jaden?"

"Not now," Haou said. "Not until he gets his shit together. If we tell him now, he'll be more of a hindrance than an asset. We wait until he calms down, then when he is the same moron he was last year, we tell him. Same goes with Jason."

"So how do we help Jaden?" She was curious for any ideas. She wanted Jaden back for her own reasons, not just to fight the Light of Destruction.

Haou sighed. "Guess it's time for you and his buddies to do some counseling."

Yubel sighed too. It was gonna be a long year.

End of Chapter 3 of Gentle Darkness vs. Light of Destruction

I hope you guys loved Jason using the Masked Heroes more. They're some of my favorite cards and to have Jason use them is fun to write, although he will NOT stop using his Coopers. He just wants to hold onto Tweener's memory by using his cards as best as he can, so he needs the practice. Chazz put up a good fight, but Jason scraped together a victory.

I was also gonna have Jaden duel this chapter, but Jason's duel with Chazz became too long so I had to cut it. Jaden will definitely duel again before he faces Aster again. (Not counting his duel with Hassleberry.)

On another note, Haou senses a very bad disturbance in the air in the form of the Light of Destruction. He's gonna be a reluctant ally in the story as he has experience with this. And any concerns about Super Polymerization already existing... remember this is an AU of GX. Things are different than they are in canon. Haou created it and the Sacred Beasts in this version of the story in his past life. All is gonna be explained in due time so hold out on any concerns.

Things are kicking into gear now, albeit a little slowly.

I hope guys liked the duel and I hope to hear from you. Like I said, I love getting reviews from you guys. You're the reason why I do this since you guys like my work. My fans' opinions are very important to me.

We'll get Misaki and Hikaru dueling next time so you all can see their decks.

Wait! I just remembered. When we get to the GX tournament, would you guys like to see some old faces from the original Yu-Gi-Oh or no? I wanna make the GX tournament great since I felt it could've been better in the anime.

Hope to hear reviews from you guys and remember to favorite and alert as well if you enjoyed and have a swell day!

Next Time: Chapter 4


	4. Gem-Knights and Psychic Energy!

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Only own the OCS.

AN: **I wasn't clear last AN when I explained about Aaron. To the Guest reviewer, if you read the first chapter, you would've saw that he was arrested for what he did. He did get arrested for killing the escapees. He was just exonerated when evidence was brought in that he was being forced to do it by Slade and Jagger or else his family would've been killed. And he is being punished now, even though he isn't in jail. He has to live with the guilt that he killed people to save his family. That's a punishment in of itself, especially since without his pills he'll go off the handle from the guilt.**

**And that comment about him putting his family's life ahead of others? Of course he cares about his family more than people he doesn't know. Anybody who loves their family would've done what he did and killed the escapees to ensure their safety. If you don't feel the same way, then I don't know how to respond to that.**

**And when I said no one cared that they were dead, I meant the general public since to them, they were criminals, and it's known that Slade and Jagger ordered their deaths and manipulated Aaron to do their dirty work for them, so no one faults Aaron except for the families of the escapees. Of course their families care that they're dead, I thought that was obvious? Jesse cares too that his dad is dead. You just won't see until Season 3 since he isn't here yet.**

**Anyways, I'm back to present a new chapter for this story. This is to see more of Misaki and Hikaru's characters. We'll see an archetype in here that may have some of you raising an eyebrow, but it's not exactly a glaring mess of an inconsistency or breaking the way the game is played at this point so I see no harm. Any questions you may have I'll gladly answer.**

**You might recognize a face here from my Season 1 story.**

**Enjoy**

Chapter 4-

In the Obelisk Blue Girls Dorm, one of the female students was already up despite it being seven in the morning. Classes weren't starting until nine today, so everyone was trying to get some more shut eye. This female student was sitting cross legged on her bed looking over her deck, already dressed in the Obelisk female uniform. Her room was very clean and radiated the sense of respect to keeping it tidy.

It was new student Misaki Haruno, and she had a winning smile on her pretty face.

'This school is awesome! I'm so happy I decided to enroll!' She thought to herself, changing the smile into a grin. 'And with cutie pie Jason here, it's all the more better!'

To compliment the crush she had on the injured Yuki twin, she had two cut out pictures of him plastered on her wall. They were both of his mugshots from his time as a member of The Domino Eight and temporarily as a member of the Red Road Three. Unlike the former, the latter were quickly deformed as they were all exonerated within a few days while the Domino Eight were formed for a month, ending with Jaden Yuki's apprehension by the police.

Misaki gazed dreamily at Jason's pictures. 'Even though he's hurt, he's still so cute.' She added a happy sigh. 'Going through hell, only to emerge from it is an amazing feat. One that I admire greatly.' She frowned just a little bit as she remembered the face of someone she despised. It quickly faded when she saw Jason's picture. 'He gives me the strength and hope that it'll all be okay someday.'

She then remembered another face. 'It sucks that he has a girlfriend, although I'm not too surprised.' She admitted as she looked over her Extra Deck. 'She is really cute too, I'll give her that.'

She smiled as she looked upon her cards. Her deck was similar to what she heard Jaden's was. 'Who knows... maybe if I duel and impress him, he'll start to take an interest in me!' She giggled as a blush worked its way on her face. 'This is gonna be so much fun!'

She didn't want to break up him and his current girlfriend. That would be way wrong and make her a horrible person and she swore to not be one of those. All she was gonna do is make it known that Jason had an option in case things went south for him and his girlfriend.

'I'm ready,' she told herself, satisfied with her deck and reworking all cards she wanted inside. She then uncrossed her legs and jumped up off her bed with her deck in hand. 'Even though it may still be early, I'm gonna go exploring! Who knows...' she grinned. 'I may run into Jason!'

She couldn't wait to duel. She always had a knack for it ever since she discovered the game one day when she was wandering through her town alone. She went through a lot of decks before finding her perfect one, which was the one she was looking at.

'I have to prove that just because I'm a little bit different, it doesn't mean I can't become one of the best!' That was her main goal despite wanting to meet Jason. All too long she's been called weird and it was about time she gave people a different opinion of her persona. She wanted to be known as a respected duelist, not that weird girl that smiled too much.

'Only question is who to duel first...' she tapped her chin thoughtfully. 'Jacey Kins is definitely on my list!' She gave a beaming grin at his picture. 'His brother Jaden too, I guess...' she heard around that Jaden was amazing. 'Zane Truesdale's little brother is here too, so I wanna see if he's as good as him. Chazz seems like he'll be fun and I wanna see if Jason's girlfriend is any good.'

Misaki was hoping to duel her the most. Maybe beating her will have Jason start to have some interest in her. Plus, if you were gonna be Jason Yuki's girlfriend then you, in her opinion, had to be amazing. If not, then you didn't deserve him.

She shrugged joyfully. 'Oh well! I guess I'll see what happens!' She giggled.

Grabbing her black deck box from the desk, she placed her deck inside before strapping it around her waist. She then grabbed her duel disk and strapped it around her arm.

She gave a competitive smirk. 'Duel Academy... Here comes Misaki Haruno, future top ranking female pro duelist!'

Before leaving, she turned around to where she had Jason's pictures up and blew a kiss to each separate picture, feeling they needed to be shown love equally.

'I love you!' She declared before she left her room, ready to start her day.

...

In another room a few doors down, another Obelisk Blue girl was getting ready for her day. Like with Misaki, this girl was an early shiner, used to it after living down south for the majority of her life. Old habits were very hard to break, to which in her case left her extremely bored.

Laying on her bed with her hair in a mess and looking gross was Hikaru Paul.

She groaned. 'Why can't I go back to sleep!' She grabbed a pillow and held it over her face. Unlike Misaki, her room was as dirty as she felt right now; bags thrown on the floor with her clothes from yesterday spread out along with the wrappers of her late night snack. 'I always looked for a reason to sleep longer and now that I have it, I can't!' She threw the pillow off with a huff. 'Goddamn! Might as well do something.'

She sat up from the bed before she spent the next few minutes working to clean herself up. Within the last twenty minutes, Hikaru had worked to make herself into her usual appearance with her spare Obelisk female uniform. The appearance that every guy seemed to like.

'I still don't see why guys think I'm pretty.' She mused to herself before shrugging. 'Whatever. Let's check out the decks.'

Going over to her bag by the foot of her bed, she hoisted it up and slammed it on her desk. She unzipped it to pull out a red deck box and a blue deck box. The red one was labeled with a 'M' and the other was labeled with a 'Z'.

'This school is pretty darn exciting,' she admitted as she looked through the deck with a 'M' on it. 'That Chazz kid put on a good show and from the rumors, the Yukis can really duel.'

She's seen Jaden duel against Chazz when the School Duel was aired and thought he was great. She's never seen Jason duel, but she heard around yesterday that he was just as good as Jaden.

'I really wanna play against them.' She thought to herself. 'I've beaten everyone in my town so many times, it turned into a chore. Even when I built a new deck, it still didn't add anything since I already beaten them so many times before that any and all enthusiasm left a long time ago.' She reminisced. 'I need a challenge and those two can give it to me, especially Jaden.'

Hikaru was never obsessed with guys like most girls her age. She had much time to find someone, so she never rushed into a relationship. She can't even recall if she ever had one.

But there was something about Jaden that caught her attention. Sure he was a little cute, but Hikaru knew that appearances didn't matter. Guys called her pretty and she was a slob underneath her exterior. Plus, the 'good looking ones' always turned out to be assholes.

She guessed she admired him for his recent endeavor. Someone her age going to jail, escaping, outsmarting the police, and then it all turning out to be a conspiracy raveled her. She was awed he made it through that alive and kept his brother alive too.

But his dueling skills is why she was attracted to him. The way he held off against Chazz and defeating him in the School Duel and it was well known that he forced rising pro Zane Truesdale into a draw. That accomplishment alone handed her attention over to him. She admired a strong duelist and Jaden was definitely one.

'I hope that the chance comes soon.' She thought. 'Even though he said he'll duel me whenever, I'm not stupid. I know he's dealing with a lot right now. I don't wanna bother and pester him for one like an obsessed girl... even though I am eager.' She smirked.

She put her first deck back in the box before pulling out her second one. She quickly scanned through it and saw it was good. She didn't have to examine this deck too much since she rarely used it. She only used it when she really wanted to beat someone. She hoped no one pissed her off enough to do that.

She set that deck back in before glancing over to the clock in her room. '8:00... might as well go see what the world has in store for me today.'

She strapped both of her deck boxes to her thigh, her red box on her right side and the blue box on her left. She set her duel disk in a small grey backpack and wrapped a single strap around her shoulder.

'Time to face the day's challenges...' she mused as she left her room.

...

At the card shack, Jason was currently chewing on a bacon and cheese sandwich. While he nowhere near looked it, he was very happy right now. The reason being that he was eating good food. Being in prison didn't exactly allow for a selection of good foods. It was always crap, crap, and more crap. So, to make up for lost time, he ate junk food and greasy food any chance he got.

He was getting a variety of looks as students started walking in to either buy cards, magazines, posters, or to get food too. He got the frightened look from some that had them avoiding him with all of their being, not that he cared. He got looks of respect from a few others, to which he would nod back at them to let him know that he appreciated it. He also, surprisingly, got a few winks from some girls and a couple even blew him kisses. He didn't expect that, so he would either raise an eyebrow and blush or give a wave to them, which made them giggle.

Did he get a fanclub or something? No one talked to him last year outside his friends. Everyone else was either a jerk like Harrington or the brothers Ken and Ryu that Syrus defeated, or tried to kill him like the Shadow Riders. He never chatted with anyone else, and he didn't say that just because he couldn't talk up until the final few weeks of school.

Did people really respect him now? All because he survived being caught up in a conspiracy? That was by far the strangest thing to ever happen to him.

And there was also that one girl... Misaki Haruno, he thought her name was. She was bold, complimenting him outright and saying he was cute. He really did appreciate the compliment since he's never heard that from anyone besides Asami and Alexis on a few occasions. He wasn't blind. He saw she had a crush on him. He found it cute, despite his dark behavior lately.

He just didn't know if he should tell her she had no chance. He didn't want to hurt a fan of his. He already had enough people who hate him and he didn't have patience for people that did. He didn't want any problems that he could avoid. Shrugging, he decided that she can have her fun for now until she tried to kiss him or something. Once she tried that, he wouldn't care and would say something.

He didn't want her as a friend though. He didn't want anymore friends. She seemed really nice but he just couldn't do it right now. He lost four of them due to his new headmaster, he still thought that was stupid on all levels, and wasn't ready for anymore. Hell, if he didn't feel so in debt to Asami, Chazz, Syrus, Alexis, Bastion, and Atticus for everything they've done for him, he wouldn't even wanna be near them either. He didn't even deserve them after all he did. He was still mourning Shane and saw everybody else in his nightmares.

He almost broke up with Asami for real after his exoneration. After everything he did and all the lives he took, he felt he didn't deserve her even more than he already did. He also felt it would help stop him from trying to kill Aaron if he had zero chance of meeting up with him. He really didn't feel like going back to jail and knew he would attack him if he saw him, so he tried his best to avoid that.

He almost smirked. So he wasn't as cold as he thought.

When they went to her house, Asami refusing to spend another second away from him, Jason thought up the difficult words he felt he needed to say. Asami told him she loved him and wanted him and even started to take her clothes off. He saw her body for the first time and they ended up making love. After that, he couldn't break it off with her. Not after what they did.

It still didn't erase his feelings that he didn't deserve her.

"Hey, Jason."

Jason turned his head to see Alexis walking into the card shack. He gave a nod of acknowledgement that he heard her while she gave him a smile in return. Jason knew that Alexis cared about him as a little brother ever since the whole Harrington fiasco, but apparently she had grown more protective of him after he came back from prison.

She said something about how he needs people to care about him so he's not too depressed. She didn't like having friends depressed, she had said. She also stated that it got annoying after a certain amount of time of them moping.

He appreciated it, though. It made him feel warm inside that she cared about him.

"Hey Lex," he greeted back as she walked over to him, taking a spot by his right side. He took another bite out of his sandwich. "What brings you here?"

"Looking for you, actually." She explained. He turned a little surprised. "I wanted to talk to you, but you weren't in your room. Jaden said you came here for breakfast."

"Well he was right..." he smirked. She smirked right back at him. "So... what does the almighty Queen of Obelisk wanna talk to a Slifer about?"

She frowned. "You know I hate that title!"

"Which is why I said it."

Alexis sighed. Sometimes, and she really meant sometimes, she missed it when Jason had no confidence to be near anyone that wasn't Jaden. She had to smile though at seeing how far he's come with his confidence. It was something she was really grateful for about everything.

Jason used the hand that wasn't holding the sandwich to grab her shoulder. "Okay, I apologize for saying it." He shrugged. "I'm trying to keep myself happy anyway I can since... my mind keeps wandering back to yesterday's discovery."

Alexis nodded. Aaron's position as the new Slifer Headmaster.

"If I keep thinking about it... I keep thinking really bad shit." Jason finished the rest of his sandwich, using the napkin he had been holding it with to clean his mouth and hands before throwing it away in a garbage a few feet from where he stood.

He blew his hands. "So what'd you wanna talk about?"

Alexis was a little nervous to tell Jason what she wanted to talk about. Not because she was scared of him, not at all! She still could see the very sweet boy she met last year within him. She just didn't want to make him upset. He was already dealing with a lot and she didn't wanna add to it.

But she felt she needed to do this. It seemed like the right thing to do.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about that..." Jason blinked. "Your anger." He sighed. "I know you hate Aaron for what he did," Jason scoffed. "And I am not here to tell you to forgive him."

Jason seemed surprised to hear that. "I would think you would tell me that." He leaned against the wall. "I know that you don't approve of my vendetta against Aaron." His gritted teeth was proof how hard it was for him to say his name.

Alexis shrugged. "I don't..." she admitted. She then sighed. "I just wanted to talk to you. I wanted to see if I can make you feel better."

"You?"

"Think about it..." she turned to look at him eye to eye. "You can't talk to Asami about how much you hate her father. That's just gonna cause problems for you two and quite frankly, I don't wanna see my favorite couple break up."

Jason had to chuckle. "Favorite couple?"

She ignored him. "Talking to Jaden will only make the bad memories seem worse. You two went through it all together. You guys talking to one another about it will maybe just make your anxiety worse... plus I know there's things you don't wanna tell Jaden."

"What makes you say that?"

"You're not rooming with him anymore."

Jason bit his lip. He cursed Alexis for being so damn smart. She was right. There were things he didn't wanna tell Jaden. Things that'll have his brother chewing him out and maybe even cursing him out for... and a few of them didn't involve his hatred for Aaron in any way, shape or form.

Alexis turned his head back to her by cupping his cheek. "I can't imagine the pain you're in after losing your friends. I can't and don't wanna imagine it. I can see how much it hurts you."

"It does..."

She nodded. "But I will listen to you if you wanna get things off your chest. I won't ever turn you away or criticize you for what you tell me."

Jason cracked a tiny grin. "Shouldn't I see a therapist then?"

"Maybe... but you don't wanna be around other people." She noted. "Being near people you don't know makes you angry. You don't trust anyone."

Damn, she was smart.

Jason smiled. "Can you read my mind or something?"

She smiled back. "I just know you." She awaited to see what he would say. "So... do we have a deal?"

Truth be told, Jason was thinking about it. He didn't wanna talk to Jaden and Asami, less some things would be said that could ruin his relationships with them both. Alexis was right for that. It would only be bad. As much as he cared about Chazz and Syrus, the former would chew him out similar to how he did when Chazz first attempted to talk to him and Syrus couldn't handle what Jason had to say.

Maybe he did need to talk; get some load off of his chest. He knew holding things in would only lead him to either saying or doing something stupid, and lord knows that he's done a lot of that already. But he also didn't wanna throw all his problems onto Alexis. He didn't think she had to listen to him rant.

He sighed. "I don't know..." he answered. "I wanna say yes, but I really don't think you need to listen to me rant."

Alexis expected this. She guessed Jason would say something like that, but she wasn't gonna take no for an answer. Jaden wasn't taking her offer, saying something like how he was fine and he could figure it out on his own. That led to an argument this morning before she set off to find Jason. If she couldn't help Jaden, she could at least help Jason.

"I don't need to..." she agreed. She smiled. "But I want to." She revealed. Jason didn't know what to say. "You're one of my best friends, Jason. Seeing you hurt like this hurts me too. I can't stand seeing you so angry when you're supposed to be sweet."

Jason frowned. "I can still be sweet..."

"Yeah, but we all want you to be that way all the time again."

Jason blinked. "Did Asami send you?" He asked. It was very painfully obvious how much Asami disapproved of Jason's anger towards her father. She tried talking to him about it after they had sex, but Jason didn't wanna and shot down any and all attempts she made to talk about it. He felt bad for blowing her off, but he didn't want to force her to pick a side between them. That wasn't fair for her. If she talked with him, she might think he was nuts and abandon him and side with her dad or she, by some bizarre power, may side with him and hate her father.

He did not want that to happen, no matter how much he hated Aaron.

Alexis shook her head. "Nope. I'm doing this of my own accord." She held a hand up. "I swear on my status as a duelist, I'm doing this on my own."

Jason laughed. "Alright, I believe you... and I guess I'll take you up on your offer..."

Alexis smiled. "Good, now I don't have to put you in a headlock and force you." They both laughed at that. Alexis looked to her PDA. "Classes are gonna start in an hour and I skipped breakfast to come talk to you." She turned towards the counter. "Guess I'll go get a sandwich."

Before she walked away, Jason grabbed her hand, forcing her to stay put.

Jason sighed before he said, "Alexis..." he then smiled. "Thanks..."

She gave him another small smile before she leaned and kissed his cheek. "No problem..." she nodded before she left to buy her sandwich.

Jason touched the spot where she kissed him, blushing at the feeling. He afterwards smiled and started walking off out the store...

Only to meet up with an angry Obelisk Blue student. He was standing at a tall 6'1, Jason having to look up to see his face. He was a black haired boy with the hair reaching the back of his neck. His green eyes were peering down at Jason.

To which Jason peered right back.

"What!" He barked out, proving Alexis' earlier theory about him having no patience for people he didn't know.

The Obelisk growled. "Why did Alexis Rhodes kiss you!? A Slifer punk!?"

Jason almost laughed. Seems like Alexis' fanclub was still strong, despite her dating his brother. Maybe he could have some fun with this. He had to or else he was gonna end up in a fight and Jason couldn't handle those right now.

He would end up killing him.

"Because she's my best female friend." He said. "She's like my older sister and we love each other. Not like that should matter to you..."

"Steve!"

"Steve..."

"Well I heard around that she's the best female Obelisk!"

Jason nodded. "She is, with Asami Elric right behind her. Where're you going with this?" Jason already felt his hands balling.

Steve smirked. "Because with her as the best female and me as one of the top new freshmen in Obelisk, she should be with the best!" Oh great, Jason deadpanned. He was one of those guys. "Asami Elric is hot too, but Alexis is just a little bit hotter!"

"Maybe..." he felt Asami was prettier than Alexis. He always did. Still, it didn't mean that he didn't think Alexis wasn't beautiful, because she was. He just wanted to egg this guy on.

Steve laughed. "Awww, little Slifer Red has the hots for Alexis Rhodes! Too bad she'll never be with a criminal like you."

"You weren't at the arena yesterday, were you?" Jason sweatdropped.

Steve shook his head. "No... why?"

Jason smirked. "That lovely lady is my girlfriend." He revealed.

Steve gasped. "Which one!?"

Jason grinned. "Take a guess..." oh this was fun. He had to do this more often. He felt like Jaden right now when he used to mess with someone. For the moment, he felt normal... and he liked it.

Steve growled. "Since Alexis kissed you, I'm gonna guess it's her!"

"No comment..." Jason neither confirmed nor denied this guy's statement. He knew he could convince Jaden and Alexis why he was doing this if rumors spread. They may even agree with him since he was honestly having fun right now, but he also knew that they wouldn't like him going about it the way he was.

"That's it!" Jason laughed when Steve jumped back. That was too easy. The guy snapped and Jason wasn't even warmed up yet. Steve pulled out his duel disk and flared it to life. "We're gonna duel and when I win, you have to stay away from Alexis!"

Jason sighed. It was similar to the whole Harrington bit, only with him having to stay away from Alexis instead of being her fiancé. He was glad Jaden took that over. He didn't like people being a prize for a game.

"I'm not gonna duel..."

Steve smirked. "Scared you'll lose to me?"

"No, I'm scared Alexis will kick my ass for going through with this." He was telling the truth here. Alexis was scary when angry. "So if you'll step aside, I'll be on my way..."

Steve didn't budge. "I figured a criminal like you would wanna fight." He taunted.

"If you know who I am, then you should know I've killed people... a lot of them." Jason said. "So please enlighten me on why you're egging me on when I won't blink twice over wrapping my hands around your throat and choking the life out of you?"

His patience was close to gone now. Another remark and Jason was leaping like a hungry tiger. He may not kill him, but he definitely will beat his ass. Jason was not frightened by the height disadvantage. He had ways of making it even ground.

"Because you won't do anything violent after what happened." Steve explained. "Since you're not on the lam anymore, you can't fight since you'll be apprehended and arrested again."

He held the duel disk up. "So come on. Either you duel or we're not going anywhere."

Jason growled. He did have his duel disk in his backpack with him, but he really didn't wanna duel with Alexis as a condition.

A loud whistle broke off their argument.

Jason looked past Steve to see that it was that girl Misaki. She didn't look thrilled.

"What's going on!?" When she saw him, she immediately blushed and turned pleasant. "Hi Jason!" She waved. He gave a half wave back.

Steve looked to her. "Who're you?"

"I'm Misaki Haruno! Why are you bullying my Jason!?" She demanded to know.

"Your Jason?" The boy himself asked.

Misaki turned redder. "Sorry... what're you doing to Jason?" She corrected.

"I'm just looking for a friendly game is all." Steve smirked. "But Jason doesn't wanna get his hands dirty."

Jason held his face in his hand. He really hated this guy.

Misaki beamed from an idea she just got. "I'll take Jason's place!" She saw this as her chance to impress him. Maybe if she dueled and beat this guy, Jason might appreciate her sticking up for him and take an interest in her. "And when I win, you leave him alone!"

Steve smirked. "Fine, but if I win, then you go on a date with me."

Misaki gagged. "Ewww... I only like one guy and you're not him!"

'It's me isn't it?' Jason asked himself with a sweatdrop.

She afterwards groaned. "Fine... but you won't win!" She flared her own disk to life. Jason took a step back, no hanging in the doorway of the shack entrance.

Steve grinned. "We'll see about that, Cutie." He drew his opening hand as she did.

"What's going on?"

Jason turned around and saw Alexis behind him with a egg white sandwich in her hand. She looked at the two people in front of them. "Why's that girl who has a crush on you about to duel that guy?"

Jason sighed. "You really don't wanna know..." he warned.

Alexis shrugged and leaned on him, Jason wrapping an arm around her shoulder as she continued to eat her sandwich. "Okay then..."

"Duel!"

Misaki: 8000

Steve: 8000

"Ladies first!" Misaki said as she drew. "I'll set one monster and end my turn." She finished as a lone card appeared on her field facedown.

"That's all she's gonna do?" Jason asked. "Not even one spell or trap to protect her?"

"Maybe the monster is the trap." Alexis shrugged.

Steve smirked smugly as he drew his sixth card. "If that is all you got then this'll be easy." He looked over his hand. "Since I have no monsters out, I can special summon the Steelswarm Cell from my hand!"

Appearing on his field was a black metallic insect looking creature with a silver insignia on its back of what looked like a devil. It glared and growled at Misaki. (ATK: 0/DEF: 0)

Misaki eeped. "Ewww, it's nasty!"

"What's Steelswarm?" Jason asked, looking to Alexis, who seemed to be surprised. "What's wrong, Lex?"

She regained herself. "This archetype came out while you and Jaden were..." he nodded, sparing Alexis from having to say more. "Anyway, Syrus battled these things in that tournament that gave you and Jaden the money. Little guy got knocked around badly by these things before winning."

"They're that dangerous?"

She nodded. "Very dangerous, Jace."

"And since that was just a special summon, allow me to summon my Steelswarm Caller in attack mode!" Appearing next to the black egg was a tall black creature with wings that had an orange pattern. The same insignia was seen on the wings. (ATK: 1700/DEF: 0)

"Now allow me to attack your facedown monster with my Caller! Attack with Steel Swoop!" Steve commanded.

The monster used its wings to fly over to Misaki's facedown card, delivering a powerful kick to the creature. The monster that flipped up was a turtle with an emerald shell. (ATK: 0/DEF: 2000)

Misaki: 8000

Steve: 7700

Steve gasped while Misaki giggled cutely. "Say hi to my Gem-Turtle. When he's flipped up, I can add a certain spell card to my hand." She took out her deck and looked for her desired spell. She smiled. "Anything else?"

"Just a facedown." Steve concluded, rather annoyed.

Jason nodded. "That was clever on Misaki's part. Fooled him into thinking she had nothing when in reality, that was her game from the start."

The freshman Obelisk barely contained her excitement. 'He complimented me!' She was now more determined to impress Jason.

"My turn," she drew. "Now I'll play that spell card I collected. The spell card Gem-Knight Fusion!" She held up a spell that showed a bunch of various gems swirling together. It looked like Jaden's Miracle Fusion.

"Now I fuse Gem-Knight Garnet and Gem-Knight Obsidian from my hand to fusion summon Gem-Knight Zirconia!"

A red armored monster with a fist of fire and a black armored monster with a necklace of jewels appeared before they swirled together. Appearing out of the swirl was a large and buff silver jeweled creature with a purple cape that caused a mini earthquake when he landed. (ATK: 2900/DEF: 2500)

"And I'm not finished yet," she giggled. "Since Obsidian was sent to my graveyard by an effect, I can special summon one normal Gem-Knight from my graveyard." She took out a single card. "Guess who fits the bill?"

Garnet returned onto the field, fist in flames and ready to go. (ATK: 1900/DEF: 0)

"Wow..." Alexis gasped. "That was impressive!"

Jason nodded. "I agree..."

Misaki was close to bouncing up and down in excitement. 'He's really complimenting me!' She cheered.

Steve stared at the two monsters. "Like I'm scared of them."

"You should be, especially when you're about to lose life points!" She grinned. "Zirconia, be a dear and take out his Steelswarm Caller for me!"

The large Gem-Knight obeyed and raised its giant arm up before landing it on top of the monster, creating a big dust cloud.

Misaki: 8000

Steve: 6500

"Now Garnet will destroy your Cell!" The second Gem-Knight ran forward before launching a right hook that took the other monster off the field. "And I'll place two facedowns and end." She concluded, having a hand of two.

"I can see why she's in Obelisk," Alexis noted.

"But I didn't know the Gem-Knights revolved around fusion," Jason stated, a little bit surprised. "Guess I should keep up with new archetypes." He said.

Alexis smiled. It was nice to see Jason act this way. Calm and happy. If only he could be this way all the time, then things could move back to the way they were before.

Steve drew his next card, having four. "I'll admit, that was a decent move..." he looked his hand over. "But now you forced me to take things a little more seriously..."

"Well bring it!" Misaki declared. "I'm ready!" She turned to Jason to see if she could see any admiration coming from him. To her disappointment, she couldn't read his expression.

Steve smirked, "I'll start things off by activating my facedown card, Infestation Ripples!" A trap flipped that showed what seemed to be the head of Steelswarm Caller rising from a swamp. "Now I pay 500 life points to revive my Steelswarm Cell from the graveyard!"

The black bug looking creature reappeared for a second round. (ATK: 0/DEF: 0)

Misaki: 8000

Steve: 6000

Misaki squinted her face upon seeing it. "Ewww, I already got rid of that thing!"

Steve gave a small grin. "Well then you'll hate me using Inferno Reckless Summon to bring out the other two from my deck."

Misaki shivered when two more Steelswarm Cells appeared by the first one. (ATK: 0/DEF: 0)×2

She then smiled. "Well I can get two more Gem-Knight Garnets from my deck too." Two identical copies of her fire fist Gem-Knight appeared and took up her last two monster zones. (ATK: 1900/DEF: 0)×2

"You're gonna need them," Steve warned. "Now I play the spell Double Summon, so this turn I can normal summon twice this turn!" He took two more cards from his hand. "Now I'll sacrifice two of my Cells to summon Steelswarm Mantis and Steelswarm Girastag!"

Misaki watched as two purple holes opened under two of the three Cells. Appearing out of them were two more large black armored creatures. One looked like an insect, complete with two metallic arms that looked like spider legs. It also had what resembled a scorpion tail coming out its back. (ATK: 2200/DEF: 0)

The had a rocket launcher for a right hand, a large black tail that floated around behind his back, and a helmet of the insignia of the Steelswarms. (ATK: 2600/DEF: 0)

She gasped at the second one. "That's a seven star monster! Why'd you only sacrifice one monster!?"

Steve laughed. "Since I used a Steelswarm as a sacrifice, I only needed one." He explained. "And now to activate their abilities!" He pointed to Mantis. "Since Mantis here was tribute summon, I can pay 1000 life points to to revive my Steelswarm Caller."

The other monster that Misaki faced reappeared on the field, not looking too pleased for being destroyed. (ATK: 1700/DEF: 0)

Misaki: 8000

Steve: 5000

"And now my Girastag's effect activates, which allows me to destroy a card on your field and regain 1000 life points."

Misaki watched in horror as the rocket hand of Girastag pointed towards her Zirconia. The next second, a rocket fired out and blew away her monster in a giant dust cloud.

Misaki: 8000

Steve: 6000

"Oh man," Alexis said. "Things aren't looking good for Misaki."

"Now I'll wage an attack on two of your Garnets!" He declared as the two new Steelswarm monsters rolled in for an attack, destroying both of Misaki's creatures with ease.

Misaki: 7000

Steve: 6000

"And my last card facedown will do." He concluded. "I hope this isn't all you got, Cutie." He smirked.

Misaki frowned. "Don't call me that!" She took her next card, having three. She looked her hand over. 'Let's see which one of my friends can work the best.'

"I activate the second ability of Gem-Knight Fusion!"

"Second effect?"

Misaki grinned. "Uh-huh! By banishing one Gem-Knight from my graveyard, I can add it from my graveyard to my hand!" She pocketed her Obsidian as she took her spell back.

"A fusion card that recycles?" Jason asked. "Man, Jaden would be jealous if he saw." Secretly, he was impressed by it. Misaki was good. The duelist in him was slowly itching to face her himself.

"And now I'll play it to fuse my Garnet with the Gem-Knight Sapphire from my hand to fusion summon a new monster!"

A monster in sapphire armor appeared as he and Garnet jumped into the familiar swirl with jewels flying out as they jumped in.

"Too bad they aren't real." Alexis shrugged.

"I don't need anymore money," Jason said. "After digging up that stash, me and Jaden are set for life."

Alexis turned to him. "Didn't you get that $100,000 for taking down Brian Phillips?" She asked, Jason nodding in response. By his expression, he didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Jumping out of the portal was a red jeweled armored knight wearing a long blue cape that flowed behind him. He also had a large axe. (ATK: 2500/DEF: 1300)

"This is my Gem-Knight Ruby!" Misaki introduced. "And now I'll summon out my Gem-Knight Alexandrite in attack mode!" She slapped her second to last card on her duel disk, a white armored knight with many different jewels embedded in his armor appearing. (ATK: 1800/DEF: 1200)

"And now thanks to my monster's ability, I can sacrifice him to special summon a normal Gem-Knight monster from my deck!"

In the place of Alexandrite came a new silver armor monster. This one had a knight helmet that covered his face. He had blue crystals sticking out of select parts of his body. He also had a blonde ponytail running down his neck. (ATK: 2450/DEF: 1950)

Misaki grinned. "This is Gem-Knight Crystal!" She introduced.

"Very good," Alexis complimented. "Now let's see what she does with it."

Steve didn't look worried.

"Now let's attack! Ruby, take out his Steelswarm Caller with Ruby Rage!" She command as her monster brought down its large axe down on the monster.

Misaki: 7000

Steve: 5200

"Now Crystal, take out his Steelswarm Mantis!" The silver armored knight pulled a crystal out of his wrist and threw to the Steelswarm, impaling it in the chest and destroying it.

Misaki: 7000

Steve: 4950

"You're done, right?" Steve replied bored.

Misaki shook her head. "Nope! I reveal my first facedown, Pyroxene Fusion!"

"A trap card fusion!?" All three asked as her facedown flipped up to show a Gem-Knight absorbing many types of gems.

"Jaden, you are gonna be amazed." Jason shook his head as he watched this. Alexis laughed at Jason's remark.

Misaki grinned at the reaction. "Now I can fuse the Crystal on my field with the Alexandrite Dragon in my hand to fusion summon my Gem-Knight Seraphinite!"

A jeweled dragon appeared briefly before it and Crystal jumped back up into the portal. Like before, jewels flew out from the fusion hole. Appearing out was a white armored knight with a long blue cape and sapphire sword. There were also angel wings on its back. (ATK: 2300/DEF: 1400)

"Destroy his Steelswarm Cell!" The new Gem-Knight ran forward and attacked, destroying the final bug like creature. She grinned. "I end my turn!" She folded her arms over her chest, satisfied with her work.

Even after that last round, Steve wasn't worried. He drew his lone card. "I play Spellbook Inside the Pot." They each drew three, both having a hand again. "And now I'll play the Recurring Nightmare spell card. Now I can add two Dark monsters with zero defense back to my hand." He took his Mantis and Caller.

"Now I'll set this monster and these two facedowns to end my turn." Steve concluded, three reversed cards appearing on his field.

"What's he up to?" Jason mused.

Misaki drew. "Thanks to ability of my Seraphinite, I can have another normal summon once a turn. So now I'll summon both Gem-Knight Lazuli and Gem-Knight Emerald!"

The first monster that appeared was a beige colored monster that looked like a little girl. She had green eyes and two long strips that flowed down her back. (ATK: 600/DEF: 100)

The second monster looked like a miniature Gem-Knight Crystal, but with green armor and an emerald embedded in the chest area. (ATK: 1800/DEF: 800)

"Now I play Ruby's special ability. Once a turn, I can sacrifice a monster with Gem in its name and have him gain ATK points equal to the sacrificed monster. I choose my Lazuli!"

The young Gem-Knight disappeared as Ruby grew stronger. (ATK: 2500-3100)

"And since Lazuli was sent to the graveyard by a card effect, I can add a normal Gem-Knight to my hand from my graveyard." She selected her Garnet.

"She is good," Alexis nodded. "Able to find many ways to keep her hand full and summon out multiple strong monsters."

"It is impressive." Jason agreed.

This time, Misaki couldn't hide her excitement. "Thank you, Jason! It means a lot to me that you said that!" She bounced up and down from her spot.

Jason sweat dropped. Alexis laughed and gave him a pat on the shoulder in reassurance.

Steve was impatient. "Can you hurry it up!?"

Misaki huffed. "You're trying to win a date from me and this is how you act?" She couldn't believe it. "Oh well... Ruby, attack!"

"Threatening Roar cancels your battle phase!" Steve's trap activated, halting Misaki's monsters.

"Fine, I end my turn."

Steve drew. "And now it's time to get serious." Misaki gasped. "I reveal my facedown card, Ultimate Offering. Now I pay 500 life points to summon an additional time." He grabbed his monster card. "But I'll flip summon Steelswarm Caller!"

The insect looking monster made a return. (ATK: 1700/DEF: 0)

"Now I'll play Pot of Greed!" He drew two more times. "Now I summon Steelswarm Genome."

A creature that resembled an alien blob appeared in the familiar black armor of the Steelswarm monsters. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 0)

"And then I'll play First Step Towards Infestation, which allows me to return my Steelswarm Girastag to my hand to draw one card." Girastag disappeared from the field as he drew.

"Now I pay 500 life points to summon out another Steelswarm monster by sacrificing my Genome!"

Misaki: 7000

Steve: 4450

A black hole opened under Genome, a large light shooting out and dragging the monster down. Appearing in its place was a large demonic looking monster with black armor and a crazed grin. He also had a scorpion like tail coming out his back. (ATK: 2800/DEF: 0)

"Meet Steelswarm Cacustag and thanks to his ability, since he was summoned with two sacrifices, which Genome qualified as, I can blow away all monsters on the field."

"What!?" Misaki gasped. She watched in horror as every monster self destructed, leaving only Cacustag on the field.

"She's defenseless!"

"Now I pay 500 more points to summon out Steelswarm Sting." He continued, summoning out a mosquito monster that had orange wings and eyes. (ATK: 1850/DEF: 0)

Misaki: 7000

Steve: 3950

"And I'll do it again to sacrifice my Sting for my Girastag again, whose effect will take out your only facedown card left." He traded in Sting for the more powerful Steelswarm. (ATK: 2600/DEF: 0) Like Steve said, Misaki's facedown was destroyed. "And that gives me 1000 life points."

Misaki: 7000

Steve: 4950

"This guy is something else." Jason mused.

"I think you're right." Alexis nodded. "In one turn, he wiped Misaki's field clean and

"Both of you attack!"

Cacustag laughed manically as he shot out a sphere of dark energy that hit Misaki in the chest. Before she had time to recover, Girastag launched out a rocket that hit her and knocked her on her knees.

Misaki: 1600

Steve: 4950

"I end my turn." He folded his arms over his chest. "Next turn you lose and we get that date." He smirked. "I promise I won't be as cruel as I am right now."

Misaki glared. "I'm not gonna lose..." 'Not while Jason is watching me.' She drew, having four. She smiled at her findings. "First I play Junk Dealer to revive my Gem-Knight Emerald and Gem-Knight Crystal, but with half their points."

Both of the Knights appeared in a kneeling position. (ATK: 1800-900/DEF: 800-400) (ATK: 2450-1225/DEF: 1950-975)

"Now I'll resummon Gem-Knight Garnet!" The flaming fist Gem-Knight hopped down in between both of the newly arrived monsters. (ATK: 1900/DEF: 0) "Perfect, now the pieces are all in place."

"Huh?" Jason and Alexis asked.

"I play Particle Fusion!" Misaki flipped over her second to last card, which showed all gems of her monsters flying off into a bright light. "Now I send all three of my monsters back to the graveyard to summon out my best monster!"

A bright light surrounded them as her three Gem-Knights jumped into a hole that appeared above them. Coming out was a warrior in platinum armor while wielding a long sword, ready to be swing at any time. (ATK: 2900/DEF: 2500)

"Meet my Gem-Knight Master Diamond!" She grinned.

"Wow..." Alexis awed. "He looks powerful."

Jason nodded in agreement.

"Since he was summoned with Particle Fusion, I can banish the spell and target another Gem-Knight, like Zirconia, and have him gain his ATK points until the End Phase."

Steve gasped in shock as Master Diamond was encased with a bright light. (ATK: 2900-5800)

"And let's not forget that its power increases by 100 for each of the Gem–Knight in the graveyard as well due to his ability!" She held up her disk. "And with ten, that's another 1000 points!" Master Diamond's aura grew brighter. (ATK: 5900-6900)

Steve sighed in relief. "Still not powerful enough to wipe me out." He commented. Misaki's next card made him shut up.

Megamorph.

She smiled cutely. "What? What was that you were saying?" She asked as her Diamond grew even more powerful. (ATK: 2900-5800-9700) She then frowned. "Don't pick on Jason again! Diamond, destroy his Cacustag and the rest of his life points!"

Her Diamond swung his large sword and made a clean cut that destroyed Cacustag with no trouble. The explosion rocked Steve and made him fall on his back. Jason and Alexis would've stumbled too had Jason not grabbed her and lean against the wall for support.

Misaki: 1600 (Winner)

Steve: 0

Misaki jumped up and down. "I won! I won my first duel here at the Academy!" She cheered.

"She is good..." Jason nodded. Now that he saw this, the duelist in him wouldn't mind going a round with her. It would definitely be fun given that her deck was fusion based as well like Jaden's and his own Masked Hero deck.

Misaki turned to look at Jason and Alexis, both stepping closer to her. Alexis nodded. "Very impressive comeback, Misaki. I can see you earned your place in Obelisk Blue."

Misaki bowed. "Hearing that from the best girl duelist on the island means a lot to me." She thanked. She blushed as she looked at Jason. "I know you could've won, but I wanted to show you my abilities." She shyly said. "What'd you think?"

Jason gave her a small smile. "You are good." She gasped in happiness. "Maybe we can have a match someday."

He was interrupted when Misaki hugged him. "Yes! Yes of course I wanna have a match with you!"

"No hugs!" Jason stated as he wrestled his way out of her grip. He really meant it when he said he didn't wanna be her friend. Admiring her skills was something completely different than that.

Misaki looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "But I would love that match with you."

"Well it can't be anytime soon," Alexis said. "Class starts in ten minutes."

Misaki gasped. "I can't be late on the first day!" She started off in a jog before turning back to Jason and Alexis. "See ya around!" She blew Jason a kiss before she took off towards the classrooms.

The Slifer groaned and blushed. "I thought I said no!"

Alexis smirked. "You said no hugs. You didn't say she couldn't blow you kisses. You gotta be more specific with your admirers or they'll keep coming back." Alexis warned playfully.

"I suppose you should know that." Jason sighed.

Alexis pecked his cheek again, getting his blush to redden even more. "Damn straight."

...

A few hours later, Syrus found himself walking around the campus. He was currently inside the main academy, passing by the Obelisk Duel Arena. Classes had just finished for the day and he was thinking about whether to go right back to the dorm or to maybe see if he can get some new cards for his deck.

The tournament that he, Chazz, Bastion, and Atticus entered this summer to get money for Jaden and Jason showed him that he had potential. He had made it to the final four of the tournament before losing out to Takashi, a guy that used a Rock deck. He only entered so he can try and help his friends. He never expected to make it pass the elimination round.

He had a real wake up call when he knocked Takashi down to less than 500 life points. He felt overwhelming joy that maybe he could win, that maybe he could win the tournament and prove to everyone that he was as good as Zane, who didn't enter the tournament as he was partaking in other duels to look for a sponsor.

But he also knew that he had a lot of work to do. He had lost due to Power Bond's effect. Takashi used Necro Gardna to keep himself alive. While he proved he had potential, he knew he still had a lot to work on to really be as good as he could be.

He wanted to be an asset, not a hindrance.

He sighed as he took a moment to stop. "I don't know what to do..." He mumbled to himself as he pulled out his Power Bond card. "I was so close to winning because of this card, but it is what made me lose." He sighed again as he put it away. "Do I keep it in, hoping to be as good with it as Zane? Or do I try and find my own way to be a great duelist?" He had so many questions and no way to get an answer. The only person that would have an answer to this would be himself. No one else could answer for him.

He was rattled when he heard a voice behind him. "You? A great duelist?" A very familiar voice asked him. "That'll be the day."

Syrus slowly turned to see, in an Obelisk uniform with messy blonde hair and an obnoxious smirk, Ken, a duelist he defeated last year to defend Zane.

He gave a nervous stare back. "W-What's up?" He gulped. Despite defeating this guy once already, Syrus was very jumpy about confrontation. Even more so after seeing just how dark humanity can descend.

Ken chuckled. "Just heard you talking about trying to be a great duelist. It made me laugh, so I thank you for that." He answered.

Syrus couldn't help but feel offended and angered. Ken just seemed to conveniently forget that Syrus defeated not only him, but his brother Ryu as well. He was starting to see just how far arrogance could go for some Obelisk students.

"But I'm here for one thing..."

"And what's that?" Syrus asked, feeling a little scared. Like he mentioned earlier, he was more jumpy after the events of the summer. Plus, he heard a line like that from the men Slade and Jagger hired. While Ken no where near meant the same thing, Syrus still couldn't help but be reminded of what happened.

He visibly relaxed when Ken simply turned on his duel disk. "I'm gonna beat you down as revenge for both me and my brother. He would love to do it himself, but he couldn't be here today."

"I don't have a duel disk or my deck." He left them in his dorm room since he was working on his deck late last night and rushed out this morning to avoid being late. He only had some of the cards he left in his deck box that made up his Side Deck, Power Bond being one of them.

Ken smirked. "Oh well, guess that means that I win by default."

"Am I interrupting something?" A new voice pierced through with a southern twang to it.

Syrus and Ken both turned their heads to see Hikaru standing a little ways by the entrance to the arena. Syrus could already feel his face heating up at the sight of her while Ken simply scoffed.

Hikaru examined the two of them, recognizing Syrus as a friend of Jaden's, before looking to Ken. "Are you bothering him because he's a Slifer?"

Ken shook his head. "He could be a Ra, Obelisk, or whatever. He's defeated me and I just want my revenge."

Syrus didn't know how to feel about that.

"Even so, what's it to you? This is none of your business."

Hikaru glared. "Well I'm making it my business. You're scaring the poor boy to death."

"I'm not really scared," Syrus tried to say confidently, but it came out a little bit squeaky. The tension building up was affecting him. He could very easily guess where this was gonna go.

Hikaru spared him a tiny smirk while Ken ignored him all together. "This is between me and Truesdale here. Don't bite off more than you can chew." Ken warned.

"Truesdale...?" Hikaru mumbled. She then looked over to Syrus again. "I knew you looked familiar. You're Zane Truesdale's little brother." She acknowledged.

Syrus nodded, feeling both peppy that Hikaru was talking to him and annoyed that she called him as Zane's younger brother. Well she wouldn't know him any other way, so he guessed it was all right.

"Yeah, I am..." He answered.

"I gotta say, I saw you duel in that tournament in Domino this summer on the live feed they were broadcasting."

Syrus gasped. "You did!?" Now he couldn't help but wonder what her opinion was. Thinking that made him blush more. He's only seen Hikaru twice and he already had gotten a crush on her. He felt like Jason last year with Asami.

Hikaru nodded. "You were good. You use Roids well. Although more practice could be needed. I don't mean to be rude, but there's always room for improvement."

Syrus nodded understandingly. "I totally get it. Always need to pass your limits, am I right?" He gave a sheepish grin that would make Jaden proud. Well... the old Jaden anyway. Syrus wasn't too sure about this one.

Hikaru nodded with a small smile. "Exactly."

"Hey!" Ken shouted, getting tired at both being ignored and for Syrus seemingly hitting it off with a cute girl. His shout made Syrus jump in his spot while Hikaru sighed. "Truesdale can't duel, so that means I win."

Hikaru seemed to briefly think something over before she shrugged. Both boys watched as she took off her backpack and pulled her duel disk out.

"I'll duel. If it means shutting you up, then I'll gladly do it." She pulled out her deck from her blue deck box. "Ready to get trounced?"

Ken glared as they both went to stand on the platform. Syrus was left on the side of it, watching.

"I won't lose to you," Ken declared as he put his deck in. "I'll incinerate you."

Hikaru now had an idea of what his deck was, but didn't voice anything. Her response was shuffling her deck and putting it in before activating her duel disk.

"Duel!"

Hikaru: 8000

Ken: 8000

"I'll start..." Hikaru drew her sixth card. "I'll simply place this monster facedown and end my turn." She concluded as one card appeared on her field.

Syrus blinked at the weird move. "That's all she's gonna do?"

Ken laughed. "This is gonna be easier than I thought." Hikaru didn't respond to his remark. Ken drew. "I'll begin by activating Dark World Dealings. Now we both draw and then discard a card."

Hikaru shrugged as she complied with the effects.

"Then I'll remove my monster, Ultimate Baseball Kid, to special summon out Inferno!"

Appearing on his field was a head made of flames with a sinister grin. (ATK: 1100/DEF: 1900)

"I'll summon out my UFO Turtle in attack mode!" A robotic looking turtle appeared by the head of flames. (ATK: 1400/DEF: 1200) "Now I'll go for your facedown monster with UFO Turtle!"

The robotic turtle breathed fire towards Hikaru's facedown monster. Amongst the flames was a mechanical bunny with red eyes and 'Love It' imprinted on the head in blue. (ATK: 800/DEF: 100)

It was destroyed easily.

"Aww man!" Syrus whined. "Hikaru's monster didn't stand a chance."

Despite it all, Hikaru smirked. "That was my Mecha Bunny. When it's flipped up, I can select a card on the field, like your Turtle, and deal 500 points of damage."

Ken groaned as a red aura surrounded him.

Hikaru: 8000

Ken: 7500

"And another Bunny comes to my field." She finished as another facedown card appeared on the field.

Ken growled. "Well I'll attack with my Inferno anyway!" He said as his second monster unleashed another flame attack towards Hikaru's second Bunny.

"I select Inferno." She chose.

"Well when Inferno destroys a monster, you lose 1500 life points." Ken smirked. "Looks like I'm ahead, huh?" He laughed as Inferno's flames continued to Hikaru.

Hikaru: 6500

Ken: 7000

"I'll place my final Bunny facedown." She slapped her third copy on her disk, not at all fazed by his attack.

"I'll end my turn with two facedowns." Ken concluded.

"Hikaru lost way more than Ken did from both her attacks." Syrus frowned. "It's not looking good for her."

"Don't count me out yet, Little Red." Hikaru said. "I haven't even begin to warm up." She revealed.

Ken scoffed. "With monsters like that, I'm not all that interested to see what you have."

Hikaru drew instead of responding, knowing her cards would do all the talking for her. "First I'll flip my Bunny up and select your Inferno again."

Her Bunny flipped up as another red aura surrounded Ken.

Hikaru: 6500

Ken: 6500

"And now my little friend will go to the graveyard as I sacrifice it to summon something else..."

In the place of her Bunny came out a very familiar and well known monster. It was a tall humanoid in a dark green suit, a bald head and had a pair of optic goggles and a metal mask on his face. (ATK: 2400/DEF: 1500)

Syrus immediately gasped at the monster. "Jinzo!"

Ken was also shocked. "But that means..."

Hikaru nodded. "Your traps are useless..." she nodded over to his Inferno. "Jinzo, attack with Cyber Energy Shock!"

Jinzo prepped a ball of energy and threw it to the flaming head, bowling it up instantly.

Hikaru: 6500

Ken: 5200

"And now I'll equip Jinzo with Amplifier so I can use traps and place a card facedown to end my turn." She concluded as a robotic helmet appeared on Jinzo's head.

Ken was not happy at a third of his deck being shut down. He underestimated her and was now backed in a corner. He needed to find a way out. He would not lose to someone associated with Truesdale.

He drew his card, having two. "I'll switch UFO Turtle to defense mode and set another monster to end my turn." He ended as his turtle took a knee and a facedown monster appeared.

Hikaru drew, having four. "I'll attack UFO Turtle with Cyber Energy Shock."

Ken was confused. "Why? I'll just be able to summon another one."

Hikaru nodded. "Yeah, you're right..." she held up a card that showed a wrecking ball crashing into a wall and sending a machine flying. "But my Aftershock card allows my Jinzo to deal piercing damage." She explained.

Ken was horrified as Jinzo's attack went on ahead and inflicted damage to him anyway.

Hikaru: 6500

Ken: 4000

"I'll special summon another UFO Turtle!" He brought a second turtle to the field. (ATK: 1400/DEF: 1200)

Syrus was in awe. 'Wow... She's amazing.' He felt his face heat up. He immediately realized what he was thinking and regained his composure.

Hikaru shrugged. "I end."

Ken glared. "Are you even trying!?" He was angered by her nonchalant attitude towards the whole duel.

She angered him more by shaking her head. "Why would I have to try? You're not exactly giving me a reason to do so."

Syrus almost laughed.

Ken snatched the next card from his disk. "I'll make you regret those words." He looked at the card he drew and smirked. "I'll play Pot of Greed!" He drew twice. "I'll activate two copies of Meteor of Destruction!"

"Hikaru!" Syrus gasped out as two balls of flames flew down and struck the female Obelisk. She kept her ground, despite the pain.

Hikaru: 4500

Ken: 4000

"Now I'll flip summon my Thing in the Crater!"

The facedown monster flipped up to show a black creature that was encased with flames. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 1200)

"And now I'll attack..."

"Huh?" Syrus asked. "Why would he do that?"

"Because of his special ability..." Syrus turned around at the new voice, seeing both Asami and Jaden walk in the arena. "When destroyed, that allows Ken to summon any Pyro monster from his hand."

Jaden nodded. "It's dangerous if done right." He smirked down to his friend. "So..." he kneeled down to his ear. "Spending time with Hikaru, Sy ol buddy?" He teased.

Syrus turned redder than his blazer. "What?" He whispered. "No! She's only doing this because I don't have my deck!"

Asami giggled. "You don't have to be defensive." She said.

Hikaru looked over to see Jaden, immediately feeling something build in her chest. She shook it off so she could focus on the duel.

"What're you two doing here?" Syrus asked.

"Walking around," Jaden explained. "We were just finishing up our final class with Professor Sartyr. We heard commotion going on, so we decided to check it out."

"Class ended awhile ago," Syrus reminded. "What were you two doing so late?" He asked.

They both got embarrassed. It was Asami who answered. "Jaden fell asleep and I tried to wake him up."

"We both got caught and had to listen to Professor Sartyr tell us about why it's not good to fall asleep in class." Jaden finished.

She pouted. "I didn't even fall asleep."

"And I said I was sorry." Jaden apologized. It just happened. One moment he was awake and the next he was passing out. He suspected it had something to do with his lack of sleep last night.

Asami smiled. "I know..." She gave him a hug as she quickly kissed his cheek. "I'm not mad."

Jaden laughed, blushing a little bit. "Yeah, I know."

Hikaru got more annoyed than she should've.

"I still think that's really cool..." Syrus noted. They looked at him confused. "That you two and Jason and Alexis can be affectionate like that with each other." He explained.

Jaden shrugged. "It just means we all love each other as family. Family can kiss and hug and all that stuff."

Asami nodded. "Agreed. We know that Jason and I love each other and that Jaden and Alexis love one another. It's no big deal."

"Hey!" Ken brought the attention back to the duel. "Can we continue!?"

"We never said to stop." Jaden shrugged.

Ken glared but allowed his monster to continue the suicide mission to Hikaru's Jinzo. The cybernetic monster prepped another ball of energy as it destroyed the Thing in the Crater.

Hikaru: 4500

Ken: 2600

"And now I can summon any Pyro monster in my hand." He grabbed one of his two remaining cards. "I'll summon Pyrotech Mech- Shiryu in attack mode!"

A pillar of purple flames engulfed part of Ken's field. When the flames settled, it was a blue bird with wings made from the purple flames. It flew above Ken. (ATK: 2900/DEF: 1800)

"Destroy her Jinzo!" He command as the bird cawed and unleashed a deadly stream of purple flames that engulfed her Jinzo. The flames were so powerful that Hikaru had to cover her face with her duel disk.

Hikaru: 4000

Ken: 2600

"UFO Turtle, attack her directly!" The turtle charged and headbutted Hikaru.

Hikaru: 2600

Ken: 2600

"Now that Jinzo is gone, I can play my two facedowns; go Meteor Flare and Reckless Greed!" He shouted as both his cards flipped up. "First Reckless Greed let's me draw twice at the cost of drawing for my next two turns." He did. "But now Meteor Flare let's me discard two cards and deal 2000 points of damage since your life points are over 3000."

"What!?" Everyone shouted.

Hikaru grumbled. "Damn, this is gonna suck." She mumbled. She braced herself as a pillar of flames appeared beneath her and engulfed her, making her scream.

Hikaru: 600

Ken: 2600

He laughed. "Oh man this is fun! I was hoping to pay Truesdale back for last year's defeat, but attacking and beating you is just as satisfying."

Syrus glared. He really hated how Ken was mocking Hikaru. She stood up for him and he appreciated that greatly. To see her get hurt because of it angered him.

Hikaru breathed. "Damn... Well, nothing I can't come back from." She said.

Ken laughed. "You're about to lose and you still think you can come back?"

Hikaru nodded. "Don't count me out until my life points are zero." She warned. She drew, having four. "I'll play my Pot of Greed." The grinning pot appeared to allow her to draw before shattering.

Hikaru drew. "Time to win."

"Oh, sounds like she has a plan." Asami mused.

"I summon Jinzo – Returner in attack mode!" He announced as he placed the card on the field. Everyone raised an eyebrow as the light materialized into a gruesome humanoid with yellow goggles. He wore a black jumpsuit and large, spiked, golden shoulder pads. His mouth was even stitched closed. (ATK: 600/DEF: 1400)

"A kid Jinzo?" They all asked.

Hikaru nodded. "Yep, now I can play the Psychic Wave spell card!" She declared, showing off a spell card depicting an underground duelist facing against Jinzo and Jinzo– Returner. "With a Jinzo– Returner on the field, I can send a Jinzo from my deck to the graveyard and deal damage equal to Returner's ATK!"

Hikaru discarded Jinzo as Returner prepared a mini ball of psychic energy and threw it to Ken.

Hikaru: 600

Ken: 2000

"Then I'll play Soul Release to remove both Jinzo's from play." She pocketed both her cards.

"And now I play Spell Economics so I don't have to pay points to do this..." She took her second to last card. "I play Dimension Fusion to bring both Jinzos to the field!"

Two carbon copy's of Jinzo appeared ready to fight. (ATK: 2400/DEF: 1500)×2

"Now I reveal my facedown card..."

"Traps can't be played with Jinzo out!" Ken shouted.

"Who said it was a trap?" Hikaru smirked at Ken's dumbfounded face. "I play Gift of the Martyr to raise one Jinzo's ATK points by the other's."

One Jinzo dissolved into purple energy and was subsequently absorbed by the other Jinzo, making sparks shoot out of his body. (ATK: 2400-4800)

Ken gulped.

Hikaru smirked. "I win..."

Jinzo prepared a Cyber Energy Shock that was the size of a basketball. It shot towards Pyrotech and once connected, caused an explosion that rattled the arena.

Hikaru: 600

Ken: 100

"Jinzo- Returner... Finish him."

"But my Turtle is still out!" Ken protested.

"Returner can attack directly." Hikaru explained, making Ken sweat as he realized that he lost.

Jinzo- Returner prepared a tiny ball of energy, but it was enough to send Ken to his knees when hit by it.

Hikaru: 600 (Winner)

Ken: 0

The holograms disappeared. "That's all," Hikaru said as she descended down the arena.

Jaden, Asami, and Syrus were impressed to say the least. "She's amazing!" Asami gasped.

"I didn't even know Jinzo had other cards to it." Jaden added, more intrigued than he has been in the last few weeks. That duel Hikaru wanted was looking very good for the near future.

"I think I'm in love..." Syrus whispered, gasping right after at hearing that slip out his mouth. He hoped to god no one heard that. He was visibly glad that no one did.

Hikaru nodded to Syrus as she walked up to them. "Now he'll think twice about going for revenge." She stated.

"Thank you." Syrus bowed.

Hikaru smiled. "I was happy to be of help." She turned away. "I'll see you guys around." She spared a final glance to Jaden before she walked out the arena.

The three were left in the arena, all still stunned by Hikaru's final move. She was definitely gonna make this year interesting outside of the drama that was still going on.

Haou and Yubel appeared behind Jaden, the latter looking to the former as he shook his head to the unasked question. Yubel frowned before she nodded and disappeared.

Haou stuck around as he carefully examined Jaden's aura. Making out the small traces of black, he sighed as he faded away.

Jaden was getting angrier and more unstable as the days rolled on. Any longer and he will make the city of Domino regret their choice to put Jaden back on the street.

End of Chapter 4 of Gentle Darkness vs. Light of Destruction

How do you like Misaki and Hikaru? Misaki's cute and energetic while Hikaru is more focused and calm.

Jaden may not look it, but Haou is right at the end. We'll see Jaden's instability next time.

I hope you guys liked the little JasonxAlexis and JadenxAsami stuff. This isn't a romantic thing. They just love each other as siblings and care about each other after all they went through. Their friendship is actually big in the coming chapters.

We got Gem-Knights as a thing! Hopefully you all liked the surprise. I'm gonna have a fun time with Misaki's duels. Hikaru's too since she has two decks, one a Machine/Jinzo, points for you if you can guess where I'm going with this, and one that you'll see later.

I should let you know that we're gonna have a lot of character development stuff going on. We'll be hitting a lot of emotional stuff before Aster returns. I need to address Jaden's and Jason's recovery from the trauma they went through over the summer. That's a reason why this chapter was late. I was planning a bunch of chapters that'll showcase Jaden and Jason's recovery. We're gonna have a lot more this story than a redo of Season 2.

Plus I was helping to design a few new archetypes for my brother's upcoming GX story. I'll be co-writing it with him and will be handing him my OCs to use. This includes Jason, Asami, Misaki, and Hikaru. More details will be enclosed in the opening AN next chapter.

Hope you leave a review and have a nice day.

Next Time: Chapter 5


	5. Dino Panic!

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX

AN: **Sorry for the very long wait for this. I wanted to take a tiny break from the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom so I didn't drain myself and lose interest in this story or The Domino Eight, which I'll update again by the end of the month or at the beginning of the next. When exactly, I don't have a clue so don't ask.**

**Anyway, we'll get a glimpse into Jaden's psyche here and also the introduction of everyone's favorite army nut, Hassleberry. I got plans for this guy. I'm also doing a Q&A for this story. First ten questions submitted, which can be about anything, I'll answer in the next chapter. There'll also be, on my profile, information about some facts on the story, including old ideas, trivia, a list of characters killed by Jaden, Jason, etc. That'll be up by next week.**

**Also, to those that don't know, go to my profile and check the links of the SKJ fanart. There's two pictures of both Jason and Asami, as well as one of Tweener! Yes, you folks can finally put a face to one of the other members of The Domino Eight and Jason's deceased best friend.**

**Lastly, my brother Naruto Uzumaki7 started a story called 'Hero King Jaden'. I'm co-writing it with him, so be sure to drop a dime. I'm also working with Above the Winter Moonlight on a crossover between her story 'Shadow Rise' and this story. I'm a busy bee!**

**Enjoy**

Chapter 5-

It was the early morning, and Jaden, Jason, and Syrus found themselves in Crowler's class. Alexis, Asami, Chazz, and Bastion were all in Miss Fontaine's Gym class that morning instead due to mixed schedules. Turns out they all weren't gonna be in every class together unlike last year. This was due to the addition of new lessons that were pushed by Seto Kaiba himself to be taught. This included OTK Strategies, Main Playing Styles of Monster and Attribute Types, Studying Archetypes, etc.

Reasons being that he felt that every possible lesson needed to be taught so that his students can be even greater duelists. Jaden mostly cringed after hearing this. Kaiba couldn't wait until two years to push this?

Despite being Acting Chancellor for the moment, Crowler apparently still wanted to grace the students with his teachings. While the ones that knew him groaned, they could admire him still doing his old duties on top of his new ones.

"Alright, time for some Dueling Styles!" His voice boomed over the classroom. He also apparently felt like taking a crack at teaching the different styles of the game and not just strategies. He apparently won a bet sometime over the summer and now was now claiming his prize. Why he chose to be able to teach more, no one could figure out. He glanced at his notebook. "Can anyone tell me what strategy is mostly associated with Fire cards?"

A few hands shot up. "Hmmm..." He pointed to one of the new Obelisks. "Miss Haruno?"

Misaki nodded. "Fire cards are mostly used to deal out Burn Damage to the opponent. Burn Damage is card effects that deal effect damage to the opponent. If one built a deck around it the right way, you would never have to attack to win." She answered proudly.

Crowler beamed. "Perfect answer! Well done, Miss Haruno!"

Misaki grinned, turning to see if Jason had a reaction to her explanation. She frowned when he didn't so much as blink... or wink. It was hard to tell due to him only having one eye.

"Alright, who's next?" He glanced over again. His eyes landed on Hikaru. "Miss Paul, would you please explain to the class the main trope behind Dragon type monsters?"

Jaden had to smirk. Same 'ol Crowler asking the Obelisks all the questions. While it was just as annoying now as it was last year, he appreciated that something normal had stuck over the summer. It took his mind off what's happened...

But he was right back when he felt the lighter in his pocket. Walter's lighter that the deceased man had given him when they parted ways after the breakout. The memories all started rushing back now. The breakout; the news reports of his friends' deaths; his anxiety attack after Jason got arrested again; and all of the people that he killed.

The men in prison whose necks he stabbed circulated in his head, making his breaths start to slow down. Then when the riot happened, one that he had caused to further along the escape, he had completely lost it when he found out that Jason had been attacked by Banger's men. Armed with nothing but his fists, he had tapped into both Haou and his anger and single handedly killed three men. He could feel something stab at his heart, not 'cause he did it, but because he enjoyed it.

Then the escape happened and not even a week after, they all started dropping like flies. Every other day, a member of their team was either killed or caught. The fear that it would be either him or Jason next had eaten at him so much, he was a sleepless wreck. Thinking about those nights, not knowing whether he would wake up again or how to console his little brother after the death of his best friend, it made his hand travel to his chest.

During all this, Hikaru gave her answer. "Dragon monsters often focus on brute ATK strength and powerful Fusion type monsters. They also have many ways of special summoning to completely overwhelm your opponent. They are also the most popular Monster type." Hikaru said.

Crowler nodded. "Very good, and kudos for the extra trivia." Hikaru nodded before going to write in her notebook. "But also, recently, another Monster Type has been climbing up in popularity lately..."

Jaden tuned out the rest of Crowler's lecture. He was still breathing shortly and difficulty, hand still clasped all around his chest. He felt, sensed Jason's eye on him, but ignored it. What he was thinking about now... Was what he and Aaron had discussed the night that he arrived.

The killings of those men... animals that Slade and Jagger hired. The same ones that tried to kill them...

The same ones that had violently attacked Asami's older sister Callie. They attacked her so viciously, she was still in the hospital recovering from a broken arm, broken ribs, and many bruises around her... feminine areas. Jaden understood why Aaron hadn't brought it up when they had talked. He wouldn't wanna talk about what happened to his daughter either if he were in his shoes.

His blood boiled again as he thought about it. His eyes were no doubt shifting back and forth between gold and brown. He wished he could have another go at them. Men... animals like that didn't deserve to live.

The animals he had gutted like a pig and whose brains he blew out. He felt his palm sweat as he remembered each stab wound he had given, which was always, and he meant always, accompanied with a swish sound that stained his ears as much as his clothes had been by the blood.

Swish, swish, swish, swish.

He was sure he was hyperventilating. He had known right then, right there, that he had become a monster. A monster that outdid anything Pegasus could come up with in his life. Suddenly, much to his surprise, he started to tear up.

"I'm so sorry..." He whispered. He definitely knew Jason was staring at him. The vibe was there. Why was he saying he was sorry? He was sorry all of this happened. Everything this summer... Walter, Tweener, S-Circuit, and Sawbuck's deaths, as well as Jason's mental decline, was on him. If he hadn't snapped when he was a kid...

Jason frowned. He hasn't seen Jaden this sad after Walter's death. He's heard things from Chazz how Jaden had a panic attack after he got caught shortly after he killed Banger, but he hadn't actually seen it. Seeing his brother, his much stronger older brother, so sad... It made him angry. What made him angrier, however, was the fact that there wasn't anyone left to take the anger out on. Every enemy they made this summer was either dead or in jail still. He couldn't get revenge. There was no one left to get revenge on. They could only sob like babies.

Jaden was garnering unwanted attention now by the unwilling audience around him. "This is all my fault..." He mumbled. "Everything is on me. Walt, Shane, Eren, Andrew... I'm sorry." He was crying now. "I'm sorry I killed you."

Crowler stared. "Jaden..." He actually sounded worried, which was as much of a shocker to him as those that had heard him, including Misaki and Hikaru. Jaden, Jason, and Syrus hadn't heard him.

"What!?" He screamed as loudly as his lungs empowered him to. He immediately felt the strain it brought to his throat, knowing he would feel that in the morning. "What do you fucking want from me, huh!?" He snapped as he stood up, his tears magically gone. Prison had taught him that.

Yubel appeared with a frown. 'Damn it, Jaden! Sit the hell down!'

Haou appeared next. 'You're gonna need to calm dow-' he was, in his mind, very rudely interrupted by Jaden, who hadn't even acknowledged that he knew they were there.

"What!? What do you want!?" He smacked his chest. "Huh!? You gonna kick me when I'm down!?" He challenged. His common sense was gone now. Anger was all that was getting through. "Go ahead! There's nothing you can do that I haven't already endured!"

Silence filled the room. Outside of the gasps, you could hear a pin hit the ground. Jaden huffed after his little rant, realizing just now what he just did.

Hikaru, despite her small feelings for him, couldn't help but face palm.

Yubel scoffed. 'You idiot.'

Haou sighed. 'Moron...'

Crowler just stared in shock. "Jaden, I'm gonna give you one chance here to apologize and sit back down. I suggest you take it or else you'll be punished."

Jason glared. "Cut him a fuckin' break here!" He added once Jaden stopped. "He snapped. It happens. So move the fuck on. Trust me, it could be a lot worse." He was the only one who knew what Jaden was going through. He felt the same way. The old saying of twins having telepathy with one another? Being able to sense the other's distress and emotions? That was all true. He and Jaden had gotten more connected after this experience they went through. He wouldn't let Jaden be ridiculed for his feelings. It wasn't right nor fair.

Misaki gasped at Jason's language. 'Wow! That's... I suppose it's nice that he's standing up for his brother, but he didn't have to use vulgar language.' She felt. She was also, dare she say, a little afraid after Jaden snapped. It was unexpected and made her jerk in her seat.

Hikaru was feeling almost the same way. 'Help. That's what those two need.' She wasn't sounding sarcastic in any way, shape, or form. She honestly felt that getting help was the best way to go for the Yukis. She didn't know them well, if at all, but she could see the obvious even if it wasn't pointed out to her.

Syrus moaned in his seat by Jason. "Jason, you're gonna get yourself in trouble." His protests fell on death ears, as Crowler had made his voice known.

"That's it! You three will be punished for your disrespect!" Crowler yelled, pointing an accusing finger at them. Internally, he did flinch at the broken faces of both Jaden and Jason. They were definitely not the same boys that had defeated him last year. Jaden was more emotional and reckless and Jason would've never had screamed the way he did.

He understood why Jaden had snapped. After all he went through, it would be worse if he acted like nothing went on. Crowler was working on an idea to help him and Jason. Still, as a teacher, he still couldn't let Jaden, or Jason, get off Scot free with their attitudes just because they went through a hard time. Syrus should've just stayed quiet. He had a year of experience to draw from when it came to his class and trying to intervene when Jaden had started in class. He should've stayed quiet.

Jaden, Jason, and Syrus all groaned.

'Fuck!'

...

In the afternoon after class, the three of them were not having a good time with their punishment. They were currently in the woods, all dragging along or carrying large clusters of duel disks.

"OK, I would rather be in detention than be doing this." Jason said. "Why did we have to be lugging these duel disks around?" Jason groaned, shouldering the backpack he wore.

"Because our dorm didn't have enough duel disks in storage. So we came to the main building, picked up some new ones and now we're on our way back," Jaden explained. "Crowler also wanted us to break a sweat."

"Stupid prick," Jason muttered. "Always having to take things up a level. That's annoying."

"It is..." Syrus whined. "And besides, Jaden's right about the storage being cleaned out of Duel Disks."

"Why's everyone losing their disks anyway?" The E-Hero duelist wondered.

"Well..."

All three eyes were turning to Syrus, who had a guilty and sullen look on his face.

"What's wrong, Syrus?" Jaden asked. "Is it about the disappearance?"

"Spill it, buddy. No need to hide anything." Jason added.

The Vehicroid duelist sighed. "It's just a rumor. I heard that if he sees you, you have to duel him and when he wins, he takes your duel disk," Syrus replied, "Or so I hear and he'll do all sorts of nasty things to you, so I'm told."

"Yeah, sure." Jason shook his head in disbelief.

"Oh really? Then where's your duel disk?" Jaden asked, glancing at Syrus' bare arm, "Did you duel this guy and lose?"

"Yes!" Syrus cried, "And he took my duel disk and my lunch money too!"

"Seriously? The lunch money?" Jason deadpanned. He had thought he'd seen it all by now.

"Then I say we take the long way home," Jaden declared, "We can't let these guys get away with stealing duel disks!"

"Where does he duel?" Jason asked, a little too eager to knock some skulls together... Or off.

"The bridge over by the west river..."

"Let's go guys!" And with that, Jaden and Jason took off into the deep forest, leaving Syrus behind.

"Wait a sec, I heard he gives you wedgies!" He ran after the twins. "So I heard!

...

After some walking, or running in Syrus' case, they reached a large clearing with a small river running through it. Spanning the river was a large yellow bridge and standing on it were six Ra Yellow students in sleeveless blazers. Standing in the center of them was the duelist that had hassled Chancellor Crowler the opening night with some duel disks strapped to his back.

"Stop right there civilians!" He commanded, "Drop your duel disks and let's duel!"

"Sure..." Jaden shrugged as he shucked his load.

"Hold on. You're not scared?"

"Of a duel? No way! It's what we do after all." Jaden answered, noticing the six bags of duel disks that sat on the bridge. Wow. They've been busy.

"But I haven't even given my speech yet! The name's Sergeant Hassleberry! Code named: Tyranno!" The Ra announced, "And if you want the duel disks, you gotta wager your own in combat, Jaden Yuki!"

"You know me?"

"You've been all over the media the past two months." Syrus reminded. Jaden awed before nodding.

"That's right! 'Cause we're Troop Tyranno!" One of the other Ra students announced, "Now sound off!"

"Sarge Tyranno is the best…"

"He likes to wear his jacket as a vest. Sound off one two!"

"Sound off three four now let's go!"

"Hold on..." The fifth Ra looked at Syrus. "You look like the kid we soundly trashed the other day..."

"Yeah! So what!" Syrus yelled.

"These guys are a few cards short of a deck," Jason mumbled. The stupidity of these guys was reminding him of a bunch of people he met while in Red Road prison, particularly a guy named Shin. Shin had been a funny guy who also said stupid shit. He reminded him of Tweener, which is why Jason neglected him entrance to the escape. He hadn't wanted to lose another friend. Did he regret that he left him there? Yes. Did he regret he was alive? Hell no.

"Anyway..." Jaden interrupted. "The point is, we want a duel to get those duel disks you took!"

"Fine, but if I win, I get your duel disks!" Hassleberry replied.

"Not exactly what I had in mind, but since losing isn't in our schedule for today, you're on." Jaden said.

"Now seeing as how only one of you has a duel disk, I'll face him," the sergeant announced, pointing at Jaden. "And judging by the look of you boy, you'll be easy prey! I'll beat you so bad that you'll be sent back to your dorm in tears!"

'Haven't cried since Walt died, so not likely.' Jaden thought to himself, remembering all those tears that fell when he heard that he had been killed. Not a single drop remained within him after losing countless friends.

"If you're trying to intimidate us, it ain't working!" Syrus replied, "You can't scare us that easily, especially these two!" True to his word, Jaden and Jason both had a stoic face. "So let's just get on with this duel already!" Jaden and Jason winced at their friend's sudden outburst.

"Control your support!" One of the troops commanded, "Or else we will!"

"I would love to see you try..." Jason warned with a low growl. His index finger was twitching slightly, bending back before straightening out once again...

Like if he was pulling a trigger.

...

A few seconds later, Hassleberry's group, Jason and Syrus stood on the bridge while Hassleberry and Jaden stood across from each other with the river separating them. Then, Hassleberry's group pulled out several musical instruments and a crimson bullhorn.

"Now that my battalion is ready, we can begin this war!" Hassleberry smiled, slipping on his duel disk.

"Alright then, Soldier, let's duel." Jaden said, his duel disk powering up.

Hassleberry: 8000

Jaden: 8000

"Are you mocking me boy? I ain't no General and this ain't no game! This is combat!" Hassleberry corrected as he and Jaden drew their opening hand.

"Then get your combat on!" Jaden drew his sixth card. "I start by summoning Elemental Hero Stratos in attack mode!"

The first hero Jaden summoned wore blue armor with two turbine wings attached to his back. (ATK: 1800/DEF: 300)

"And when summoned, I can bring an Elemental or Evil Hero from the deck to my hand..." He took the desired card he wanted. "Like Elemental Hero Wildheart. Now I'll call it a turn!"

"An okay start," Jason noted. "He's got a good monster out, and another one waiting to go."

"Who's the best! Troop Jaden!" Syrus cheered.

All that did was spark the pep in Hassleberry's followers as they started playing their instruments and waving a yellow flag with a T-Rex head on it.

"You call that a cheer! Then shout to the rear!" They shouted.

"If that's all you got, then this'll be a short match!" Hassleberry insisted, drawing his sixth card, "Gilasaurus, front and center!"

Jaden watched as a thin, brown dinosaur appeared on the field. (ATK: 1400/DEF: 400)

"And that right there was a special summon!" The dino duelist declared. "And if you had a monster in the grave, you could summon one. But too bad you don't, so I'll dismiss Gilasaurus so Dark Driceratops can report to the field!"

A flying green triceratops swooped in with purple wings and a yellow beak. (ATK: 2400/DEF: 1500)

"Not bad!" Jaden nodded. "A 2400 ATK point monster on your first turn!"

"This is war! Don't give the enemy any props!" Syrus shouted.

"Cool it, Sy. Jaden's got things under control here," Jason said with confidence.

"Now its time to engage the enemy! Attack with Flying Phantom Nosedive!"

The new dino flew towards the hero and gave a diving peck to the hero. The attack sent Jaden to his knees.

Hassleberry: 8000

Jaden: 7400

"At ease, private!" Hassleberry laughed.

"Hey Jaden, you all right?" Jason asked.

"Get up, son!" The Ra 'sergeant' taunted as he placed a facedown. "I'm not done wiping the floor with you!"

"Way to go Sarge!" The flag bearer called.

"Who's the best?" The megaphone-bearing Ra shouted.

"Troop Jaden!" Syrus countered, "Now turn it down a decibel!"

"Sorry little man, but the Sarge needs support!" Syrus winced as the megaphone was right next to his ears, "If you don't like it, you can leave!"

"Jaden! Hurry and beat the khaki pants of this guy so we can shut these guys up!" Syrus added.

"And pronto. I'm this close to punching someone in the mouth." Jason gave a sideways glance to Hassleberry's troop, who all inched a little to the left.

"What do you think I'm trying to do? Lose on purpose?" Jaden asked as he drew his next card. "Alright Lieutenant, my draw!"

"It's Sergeant! Now play something!"

"Fine. First I'll play Fusion Sage to add a Polymerization from my deck to my hand." He did as such. "Now I'll play it to fuse my Necroshade with my Sparkman to make my Elemental Hero Escuridao!"

The dark fiend looking and electric hero appeared and jumped into the vortex. Popping out was a dark colored hero wearing black armor and four spiked sections on all corners of the armor. (ATK: 2500/DEF: 2000)

"The best part is that she gains 100 ATK points for every Hero monster in my graveyard."

"Sam Hill!" Hassleberry gasped as a dark aura surrounded Escuridao. (ATK: 2500-2700)

"But before I attack, I'll play Monster Reborn to bring back Stratos!" The turbine winged hero reappeared. (ATK: 1800/DEF: 300) "This adds Elemental Hero Avian to my hand."

"Now I'll attack with Escuridao!" The dark hero dashed forward and took a swipe of her claw, cutting the dino down to size.

Hassleberry: 7700

Jaden: 7400

"Stratos, follow up on that attack with Gust Blow!" Stratos cupped his hands and shot out a long burst of wind that knocked Hassleberry on his back.

Hassleberry: 5900

Jaden: 7400

"And with a facedown, I'll call it turn!" He concluded, bringing his hand to three.

"Nice one, Jaden!" Syrus cheered. Jason nodded at the move. "And I see the cheer squad doesn't have a comeback!" Syrus grinned at Hassleberry's group. "What, speechless already?"

The group just looked at each other.

'This civilian ain't half bad...' Hassleberry thought. 'But Sarge's got a few tactics up his sleeve!' And when he looked towards his group, they quickly went back to their cheers. 'They try so hard, them boys. But I gotta show how even though we're not the top ranked dorm, we still can duel with the best!'

Hassleberry remembered having some of the top scores of his entrance exams, written and duel exams both and thought he was set for Obelisk. But when registration gave him a yellow vest, he was disappointed.

"But I made due and like my daddy did, became a true leader after forming my own squad! And let it be known that Sgt. Tyranno Hassleberry, son of the great General Hassleberry, is a giant among men! And I guard this bridge to prove no matter what, I won't stand down!"

"Could you cut the monologue?" Syrus interrupted. "It's your turn, dino boy!"

The dino duelist gasped. "Was I thinking out loud again?"

His group nodded.

"Oh my god, that is funny." Jason smirked.

"You're funny, Hassleberry." Jaden smiled.

"I'm not trying to be!" He drew, having five. "I play Pot of Greed to draw two cards!" He drew two more. "Excellent! Terrain advantage! I activate the field spell Jurassic World!"

The bridge and river was changed to a forest filled with palm trees and volcanoes. In the distance, the roars of ferocious beasts echoed.

"With this in play, all my dinosaur cards gain 300 ATK and DEF! Now I play my Polymerization to fuse a second Gilasaurus with Kaitoptera."

Another dinosaur, a brown, pterodactyl fused with Gilasaurus and formed into a giant purple pterodactyl. (ATK: 2000-2300/DEF: 1000-1300)

"Meet Horned Saurus, and then I'll play Living Fossil to revive my Gilasaurus to the field, negating its effect and losing 1000 ATK!"

The brown dino reappeared. (ATK: 1400-400-700/DEF: 400-700)

"But he won't be here for long as I sacrifice him to summon Frostosaurus!"

The brown dino vanished as a Brachiosaur encased in ice appeared. (ATK: 2600-2900/DEF: 1700-2000)

"Holy shit," Jason muttered.

"Jaden's got his work cut out for him." Syrus added before sparing a glance to the older Yuki. He blinked his eyes, unsure of what he was seeing. Jaden was panting heavily. "Um, Jason? Is Jaden alright?"

Jason looked down to his brother, cocking an eyebrow upward seeing his breathing accelerate. "I don't really know." He softened his expression though.

Jaden made a move to place his hand over his chest. He resisted when he realized he was still in the middle of a duel.

'What's wrong with me?'

Yubel looked on in worry, not sure how to tell Jaden what he was going through at the moment. With his pride in being strong for the people he cared about, he would hate to be told that he now had a weakness.

"Now once during a duel, Horned Saurus can bypass your monsters and attack directly!" Hassleberry grinned.

"No way!" Jason and Syrus gasped. Jaden was still getting his nerves under control.

"Horned Saurus, relieve the enemy of some his points! Dino dive-bomb!"

The flying dino soared over his monsters and wing slapped Jaden. Surprisingly, Jaden remained standing, taking the hit like a champ.

Hassleberry: 5900

Jaden: 5100

"Impressive endurance." Hassleberry nodded. "But it still ain't gonna save you from your Escuridao from my Frostosaurus!"

The frozen dino stomped over and took a bite outta the fusion hero.

Hassleberry: 5900

Jaden: 4900

"I activate my trap!" Jaden's trap flipped up, showing a kid hero powering up against a much larger enemy. "It's called Rookie Fight! This allows me to special summon a Level 3 or lower Elemental Hero from my deck!"

He fanned out his deck. "I pick Burstinatrix!" The original heroine of flames appeared with a battle cry. (ATK: 1200/DEF: 800)

Hassleberry smirked. "Well she won't make a difference. With just one more round to go and with my two monsters stronger than yours, you'll be extinct! Then your duel disks will be all ours, right troops?" He glanced over to his pals, nearly falling over in astonishment. All of them were sitting on the ground, yawning.

"You guys were supposed to be cheering on that one!"

"Uh sorry Sarge. We were moved internally. We'll have an outward expression next time!"

"Uh yeah and we'll cheer too."

"What am I gonna do with you guys?" Hassleberry groaned.

"Hey Sarge! Keep your eyes on the prize!" Jaden called his attention back.

"You got confidence, boy! Let's see what you do with it!"

"Sure," Jaden drew, having four. "I play Fusion Recovery, bringing Polymerization and Sparkman back to my hand!"

Jaden brought out his two cards from the grave.

"Now I think is the perfect time to show a new Hero of mine, one that I recently received due to a person close to my heart." Alexis' face entered his head as he slapped the card onto his duel disk.

Appearing on the field was a new hero that Syrus and even Jason haven't seen before. It was a male hero with a orange helmet that covered his eyes and flaming hair. He had an orange chest plate and black pants that stopped above his knees and red boots. Five rocks that were lit in flames were attached to his back with five golden hooks. He pumped his fist as it lit up in flames. (ATK: 1200/DEF: 1800)

"He's a new one." Jason pointed out the obvious.

"And he has two handy abilities, but I can only use one." Jaden explained. "I'll use the one where I send a Hero monster to the graveyard from my deck and give its ATK, DEF, and Attribute to Blazeman." He pulled a card out. "And I'll choose Ocean!"

One of the balls behind Blazeman turned blue, turning the flames around his body the same color. (ATK: 1200-1500/DEF: 1800-1200)

"And I think it's high time to bring in the ice age! I play Polymerization again, fusing Elemental Heroes Avian and Blazeman!"

Avian appeared as he and Blazeman fused together. A new Elemental Hero land on the field with snow blowing behind him; it was a pure white armored hero with a cape flowing behind him. (ATK: 2500/DEF: 2000)

"How's he gonna help you?" Hassleberry smirked.

"You'll see... Attack Frostosaurus..."

"Serious!?" Hassleberry laughed. "Wrong target, son!" Frostosaurus countered with a tail swipe, destroying Absolute Zero.

Hassleberry: 5900

Jaden: 4500

"You should've went for Horned Saurus."

"Now my Absolute Zero's effect activates," Jaden ignored him. "When he leaves the field, all of your monsters are wiped out."

"Sam Hill!" Hassleberry watched in horror as his dinos were frozen over and collapsed into ice cubes.

"Looks like the dinos can't stand the cold!" Syrus grinned.

"You're enjoying this a little too much..." Jason noted. He then shrugged. "Although I completely understand your satisfaction at seeing Jaden outsmart this guy."

"Now Stratos, continue the assault." Stratos flew forward and smacked Hassleberry with a punch to the face.

Hassleberry: 4100

Jaden: 4500

"Burstinatrix, follow up with Flare Storm!" The heroine of flames blasted Hassleberry with five small balls of fire.

Hassleberry: 2900

Jaden: 4500

"I end my turn." Jaden concluded.

Hassleberry growled as he drew. "I play Spellbook Inside the Pot!" They each drew three, Hassleberry having a hand again while Jaden had five.

"I summon Sabersaurus in attack mode!"

Next, Hassleberry brought out a giant red and white spiked triceratops that stomped the ground with rage. (ATK: 1900-2200/DEF: 500-800)

"Attack his Burstinatrix!" Sabersaurus charged in and rammed hard into Burstinatrix, effectively wiping her off the field.

Hassleberry: 2900

Jaden: 3500

"And I'll end my turn with a facedown card!" Hassleberry concluded.

"My turn!" Jaden drew, having six.

"And that activates Thunder of Ruler! Now, if you had any ideas of attacking this turn, they're negated!" He laughed.

Jaden sighed. "Oh well. Guess I'll still prepare a defense," he looked his hand over. "I'll switch Stratos to defense mode and use Polymerization to fuse Clayman with Bubbleman!"

A monster that bore a round body, rounded arms and a blue head appeared on the field, kneeling, protecting Jaden. (ATK: 1900/DEF: 3000)

"With one facedown, I end." He concluded, bringing his hand back down to two. He had a smirk on his face. He was, for the first time in a long time, having some fun and letting loose.

"He's smiling?"

"That is a shocker." Jason mumbled, not having seen Jaden smile in months.

"Sure, Jaden always has a good time dueling." Syrus told Hassleberry's troops. "Unlike the sarge!" That line got a laugh out of the guys but earning a glare from the dino duelist.

'Deserted again...' He thought. 'Every time I find a group of loyal soldiers, they end up siding with the enemy!' He then growled as he drew. "I play Card of Demise to draw five cards!" He drew his cards. "Excellent! I sacrifice Sabersaurus to play Big Evolution Pill!"

Sabersaurus disappeared as a spell card showed off three dinos surrounding three boosting pills.

"With this in play, I can summon any dinos without sacrifices until the end of your third turn, but you won't last that long!" He chose another card. "Black Tyranno, front and center!"

A giant and deadly black tyrannosaurus came out to the field. (ATK: 2600-2900/DEF: 1800-2100)

"Now since you kindly put all your monsters are in defense mode, Black Tyranno can directly!"

"Shit!" Jaden gasped.

"That's going to be real pain to the life points!" Syrus said.

"He'll have almost nothing left." Jason added.

"Now Black Tyranno, sic 'em boy!"

The giant dino roared as it stomped towards Jaden and took down a large chunk of points by swinging his tail. Again, Jaden took the hit like a champ.

Hassleberry: 2900

Jaden: 600

"Almost completed my mission!" Hasselberry cheered. "Now one card facedown and it's back to you!"

Jaden, however, was breathing heavily again.

"Son, you alright?" Hassleberry asked. "Got asthma or something?"

"What's wrong with him?" Jason asked. "I noticed, both times Hassleberry's gotten a lead on him, he starts breathing like this." He went to thinking. Jaden didn't have any problem with his lungs before. He was actually very healthy, only a little bit on the emotionally unstable side just a little bit. Still, he didn't see how that played into this breathing problem he seemed to spawn.

"Maybe something happened that he got asthma?" Syrus offered.

"I really don't know."

Jaden grabbed his chest. 'What's wrong with me?' He panted. 'I never had an issue like this before. Why now?'

'Do you really wanna know my opinion or are you being sarcastic?' Yubel asked as she appeared.

'What?' Jaden asked, all ears for Yubel's theory.

'I think you have PTSD.' She said. 'And that gave you anxiety attacks.'

Jaden's eyes widened. Was that true? On the contrary, he did have a panic attack when he found out Jason was arrested again, but he wrote that off as a one time thing due to the stress. Could that have stuck?

'Anxiety attacks?' Haou shook his head as he appeared. 'To think I had respect for you after everything, Jaden. Anxiety attacks? That's lame.'

Yubel glared at him, which made the king shrug.

"I'm fine," he mumbled as he drew his card, having three. "I'll place a facedown to end my turn."

"Got nothing?" Hassleberry cracked as he drew. "Well shame to say this duel is over. Black Tyranno, attack directly!"

"Hold it, I play Negate Attack! This stops your monster's attack in its tracks!"

Black Tyranno halted its advancement.

"Nice save, Jaden!" Syrus called.

"Dramatic as usual, bro." Jason smiled.

"Sergeant Jaden is the best!" The other Ras cheered.

Hearing that was a big blow to Hassleberry's pride.

"Deserted... again..." He said. "This always happens; I guess the only person I can trust is myself..." He fell to his butt. "I don't get it, I'm a great leader and I always win!"

Jaden stumbled upon hearing that. Those words, they sounded very familiar to him. Maybe not in the exact same way Hassleberry said them, but the context of the words pulled at his heart.

'You were called a great leader by Carlos and Walter,' Haou reminded him. 'Upon escaping East Domino, they showered you with praise that your plan worked.'

'Oh yeah... Though I'm not a great leader now. I got half my team killed due to my mistakes and my inability to learn from them.' He berated himself.

"I've beaten twelve other guys with the same moves, yet no one's cheering..."

"Maybe they're bored?" Jason pondered as Hassleberry looked his way.

"Come on! Bored with my dueling!? That's crazy talk!" He replied.

"Think about it..." Jaden got his attention. "You used the same cards twelve duels in a row. Sure they may work out now, but one day it's all gonna come crashing down on you. Using the same tactics will lead to the downfall. Either you or your soldiers."

Walt, Tweener, S-Circuit, and Sawbuck entered his thoughts.

He sniffed with tears in his eyes. "Don't you think you should learn from your tactics and evolve?"

Hassleberry gasped.

"Nice dinosaur reference, Jay!" Syrus nodded.

"It was," Jason nodded. "Good job."

"Time to prove it to you." Jaden drew, having three. "And I'll do it with this: I activate the field spell I just drew! Skyscraper!"

Suddenly, the field started to advance to the Ice Age as the plant life started to freeze up. Then, tall city buildings erupted from the ground.

"Change!? I hate change!" Hassleberry growled. He gasped. 'Maybe that's what's wrong with me...'

"Without Jurassic World, your dino loses power!"

Black Tyranno roared at the lost of power. (ATK: 2900-2600/DEF: 2100-1800)

"Now I'll summon Wildheart in attack mode!" The tan skinned hero appeared with his large knife. (ATK: 1500/DEF: 1600) "Then I'll switch both my monsters to attack mode!" Stratos and Mudball Man took a stand.

"I attack with Mudball Man!"

"But why? My dino's still stronger?"

"With Skyscraper out, when Elemental Hero battles a monster stronger than him, he gains a 1000 ATK!"

Hassleberry gasped as Mudball Man got a boost. (ATK: 1900-2900) He tackled the dino with a shoulder charge, dismissing him from the field.

Hassleberry: 2700

Jaden: 600

"Now Stratos and Wildheart can finish the job!" Stratos prepared a gust of wind while Wildheart charged in for the slash.

Before the attacks, Hassleberry smiled. "Jaden... You got spirit soldier." He said to himself as his eyes developed dinosaur slit pupils. He took both hits, ending the game.

Hassleberry: 0

Jaden: 600 (Winner)

"Game's over..." Jaden said.

"Yeah, you beat me fair and…" Hassleberry then stumbled into the river, forgetting the hologram of Skyscaper disappearing with the bridge and river reappearing.

"Hey, you alright?" Jaden asked, kneeling over the side.

"I owe you some duel disks," The Ra grinned.

Jaden gave a small smile back. "Yeah..."

...

Back at the Slifer Dorm, Chazz's construction crew was almost finished with the additions to the right side of the dorm. Spying on the crew was Crowler and Bonaparte with binoculars.

"I see that Red Dorm is almost done with the renovations..." The Chancellor stated. "This should catch the eye of the paparazzi."

"We should be tearing down that dorm, not making it better!" The Vice-Chancellor argued. "And how did that rich kid get approval anyway?"

Suddenly, his view was blocked by a large green bag carried by Hassleberry as he walked towards the Slifer Red Dorm, more specifically Jaden's and Syrus's room.

...

Once inside, the Ra dino duelist dumped his stuff in the middle of the room. It was mainly full of pots, pans, canteens and cups. Very strange considering the person that packed them. One almost expected tons of exercise equipment or dinosaur merchandize.

"Uh, sarge?" Syrus asked. "Any idea why you're dumping your stuff in here? You're not moving in, are you?"

"Please tell me we're being punked." Jason muttered.

"Yeah, this place is cramped enough." Chazz was also there, lying down on the top bunk. "No need for freeloaders."

"And you should know all about that!" The little Slifer replied.

"Syrus!" Chazz snapped, the little Slifer grinning maliciously.

"My mind's made up!" Everyone turned to Hassleberry. "Dueling Jaden, showed me I have a lot to learn!"

"Oh no you don't!" Syrus yelled. "Jaden already has a best friend! Go for Jason!"

You could practically feel the temperature drop after Syrus had said that. Jason darkened, bowing his head and resting it within his palms. Jaden sighed alongside Chazz. Hassleberry was the only confused one. Immediately, Syrus realized he messed up. Messed up bad.

"Damn it, Jason!" He went to apologize. "Sorry! I forgot that's a sore subject for you! I don't know how though!"

Jason simply shrugged in response. What was he gonna do? Hit Syrus for a slip up? He wasn't that far gone... At least he liked to think that he wasn't.

Seeing the tension needed to be broken, Chazz cleared his throat. "Besides, if you wanna learn a thing or two, you should follow the Chazz around for real support..." The black coat Slifer smirked.

The Ra then stood up and offered a handshake to the E-Hero duelist. "Hassleberry, reporting for duty, sergeant."

Amused, Jaden shook his head. "You can just call me Jaden." He shook his hand.

"Sir yes, sir!"

End of Chapter 5 of Gentle Darkness vs. Light of Destruction

Hassleberry is finally here. I figured I end the chapter lightheartedly after that pretty intense opening.

Jaden's not exactly too stable. As you saw, he's pretty guilt ridden about his past as a kid and the summer, mostly blaming himself for the deaths of his and Jason's friends. And, in case you lost track in his mental monolog and during his duel with Hassleberry, he has developed panic and anxiety attacks. That's his PTSD while Jason's is a murderous intent. You guys probably would expect it to be the other way around, with Jaden being murderous and Jason with panic attacks. That's exactly why I went this route. The unexpected is the most fun.

And some of you don't like how this story is kinda dark. I did warn you that this would be darker than canon. I really didn't want to do just Season 2 with my OCS added. That's clichéd and boring. Season 1, while so much fun, was basically just canon with Jason and Asami thrown in with small deviations at times. I want to do an original take on the series, which is how it'll be from here on out. If you don't like the dark themes, then I'm sorry, but that's my writing style. There's a story to be told aside from all the card games.

The next few chapters will be original content. You all know that Syrus vs. Missy was next episode wise, but it's time for the start of the character insight, exploration, and development of the story. We're building up to Aster's return and Jaden discovering about the Light of Destruction. He has his suspicions, but is too caught up in his own conflict to really follow up on it.

Hope you leave a review if you enjoyed!

Next Time: Chapter 6


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